Katherine Hughes

Katherine Hughes ’08, is a clinical professor and director of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, is a leader in nonprofit, small business, and social enterprise law and practice in New York City. Prior to joining Fordham, she served as pro bono counsel and global director of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton’s pro bono program.

An accomplished transactional attorney with many years of experience working with and supervising junior attorneys, she has served as the co-chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Non-Profit Organizations Committee and as a program committee member of the New York University Grunin Center’s annual conference on Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing.

For her pro bono work on behalf of nonprofits and social enterprises, she has been recognized by Lawyers Alliance for New York and named a Trailblazer by The New York Law Journal. Hughes brings considerable teaching experience, including co-teaching seminars and supervising students in Fordham’s Community Economic Development Clinic and legal writing program for many years. Hughes also clerked for Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

She is a graduate of Fordham Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Fordham Law Review and received the Joseph R. Crowley Award for public service and academic achievement, the Archibald R. Murray Public Service Award for public service contributions, and the Fordham Law School prize for the student with the highest GPA in their first-year section. Hughes also earned an M.A. in international political economy and development at Fordham and an M.Sc. in race and ethnic relations from the University of London. She received her B.F.A. from Emerson College.