Patricia Freshwater

Professor Patricia Freshwater is an Assistant Professor of Law, teaching Immigration Law, Constitutional Law, and related courses. Professor Freshwater received her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, summa cum laude, in 2002, and earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2006, where she served as a Notes Editor of the Virginia Law Review and participated in the Immigration Law Clinic.

After graduation, Professor Freshwater clerked for the Honorable J. Frederick Motz, United States District Judge for the District of Maryland. She then joined Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., as an associate, where her practice included federal civil litigation and pro bono immigration representation. In 2009, she returned to Texas as an Equal Justice Works Fellow and staff attorney at Catholic Charities of Dallas, where she designed a legal representation project for detained immigrants and built a pro bono recruitment and training program for volunteer attorneys. From 2011 to 2026, she was a founding partner of Lopez & Freshwater, PLLC, an immigration law firm in Dallas, where her practice encompassed removal defense, bond hearings, appeals, asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, VAWA and U visa cases, family-based immigration, and citizenship and naturalization.

Professor Freshwater has presented continuing legal education programs for the State Bar of Texas, the Dallas Bar Association, the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association, and the Conference on Crimes Against Women. Her student writing appeared in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, and her article on special immigrant juvenile status received the State Bar of Texas Best Article Award.