Dveera Segal

Professor Emeritus

Biography

Dveera Segal joined the Villanova Law faculty in 1999 and served as the director of the Civil Justice Clinic until her retirement in 2018.

She has served as a litigator and an advocate for the poor and disadvantaged. In law school, she represented clients as an active member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, a student-run legal services office. Following graduation, she practiced as a staff attorney for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, IL, and for the Delaware County Legal Assistance Association in Chester, PA. She represented individual clients in a wide variety of cases, including housing, consumer, employment, public benefits and domestic abuse matters. In Illinois, she was also counsel in class action litigation, successfully challenging reductions in general assistance benefits, protecting inmates’ rights in prison disciplinary proceedings and obtaining damages for consumers injured in a revolving repossession scheme in violation of the UCC. In Delaware County, Segal specialized in public benefits and in public and subsidized housing matters, where she represented many individuals and was also lead counsel in federal litigation which caused the Chester Housing Authority to create both an admissions procedure and a grievance procedure

Prior to joining Villanova Law, Segal taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1994. While teaching in their Civil Practice Clinic, her areas of practice expanded to encompass civil rights, civil forfeiture, family law and special education. She also supervised student externships at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, the Office of General Counsel of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Environmental Protection Agency.  

Segal has been active in a number of professional and civic organizations, including the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Family Law Section (custody committee) and the Public Interest Section (delivery of legal services committee). She was also appointed as a member of the investigative division of the commission on judicial selection. Segal has served as a coordinator of the Delaware Valley Clinical Workshop, a member of the board of directors of HIAS and Council, a past board member of the Northwest Interfaith Movement and the past president of the Germantown Jewish Centre.
 

Practice Experience

• Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, IL
• Delaware County Legal Assistance Association, Chester, PA
• Joined the Villanova Law faculty in 1999