Associate Professor of Law
Associate Professor Kim Vu-Dinh is the director of the Economic Inclusion Clinic. She joined Mitchell Hamline in 2022 after five years as a professor and director of the Business Innovations Clinic at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and as an adjunct at the Clinton School of Public Service. She founded the first Arkansas chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, which coordinated election protection workshops in Black churches and barbershops; trained over 50 law students and lawyers to be legal observers after George Floyd’s murder; and coordinated litigation that resulted in every 2020 absentee ballot being counted.
Vu-Dinh was previously a clinical teaching fellow at Yale Law and adjunct at Tulane, where she taught sustainable real estate development and finance. In post-Katrina New Orleans, she worked in disenfranchised neighborhoods on community-based real estate redevelopment. In Alaska, she clerked for Superior Court Judge Eric Smith (ret.), was a public defender, and became an ice climbing instructor.
Vu-Dinh also worked with university leadership at the University of Applied Sciences in Kosovo in designing a social enterprise project; has taught courses about the Balkans; and has hosted panels with guests including Kosovo Supreme Court justices and former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark.
A foodie, Vu-Dinh sampled more than 40 restaurants during her first two months in Minnesota. She’s discovering new parks on walks with her jazz musician husband and pointer mix daughter and is learning swing dancing.
“My favorite part about teaching is also my favorite part about research and writing—learning from others and helping others see things differently. Through my clinical work, I get to collaborate with students and clients to come up with new solutions to the age-old problem of economic inequality. It’s one of the best jobs on earth.”
Education
J.D., City University of New York School of Law
B.A., University of California, Berkeley
Study abroad, Vietnam National University, Hanoi; Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest
Has published in the Duke Law School’s Alaska Law Review, the Houston Business and Tax Journal, the Business and Finance Law Review of George Washington Law School (peer-reviewed) and University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law’s Journal of Animal and Environmental Law (peer-reviewed).
Experience
Mitchell Hamline School of Law: associate professor of law, 2022–
Bowen School of Law, University of Arkansas: director of Business Innovation Clinic, 2019–22; assistant professor, 2019–22; visiting professor, 2017–19
Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas: adjunct professor, 2020–22
Yale Law School: Ludwig/Cover Fellow and Associate Research Scholar, Community & Economic Development Clinic, 2016–17
Tulane University: adjunct professor, Sustainable Real Estate Development Program, 2015–16
The University of Applied Sciences at Ferizaj, Ferizaj, Kosovo, Fulbright specialist, 2019
Community Capacity Consulting, independent consultant, 2012 –
Harmony Neighborhood Development, New Orleans, funding and compliance manager, 2010–12
State of Alaska Department of Administration, Anchorage, attorney II, 2007–10
Various, political campaign manager/project coordinator, Anchorage, 2005–07
Superior Court of Alaska, Palmer, AK, attorney I, 2004 –05
International Development Enterprises, Hanoi, Vietnam, program manager, 1999–2000
Bar admission
Arkansas, 2018
Alaska, 2007
Licensure
CHDO-recognized Affordable Housing Consultant, 2012–
HUD-Certified HOME Program Specialist, 2012–
HUD-Certified LIHTC Property Management Compliance, 2011–12
Boards and Committees
Arkansas Appleseed Legal Justice Center, 2021–
National Lawyers Guild—Arkansas Statewide Chapter, founder, president, 2020–2022
Arkansas Capital Corporation, Little Rock, Low-Income Accountability Community Advisory Board Member, 2021–2022
University District Development Corporation, Little Rock, board member, 2020–2022
Fund 17, New Orleans, advisory committee member, 2015–16
Catholic Charities, New Orleans, immigration legal volunteer, 2015
New Orleans African American Film Festival, volunteer coordinator, 2010–12
Awards and recognition
Minority Mentor Award from the Little Rock Regional Chamber, 2020 finalist, 2021 winner
We Heart Our Faculty Awards from the Student Government Association of Bowen, nominee, 2020–21
New York State Bar Association Legal Ethics Award, 2002
