Regina Jefferies joined the University of New South Wales as a Teaching Fellow and Scientia PhD Scholar in August 2017. Her research explores international legal compliance in transnational human rights regimes.

She has worked as a Contract Attorney for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regional office in Washington, D.C. and counts more than 10 years of experience practicing before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

In 2017, she was awarded The Advocates for Human Rights Special Recognition Award for serving a leader of the rapid-response team that mobilised attorneys at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to protect people affected by President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Prior to joining UNSW, she worked as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School Detainee Rights Clinic after spending 9 years as an immigration attorney in private practice in Arizona. In 2011, she earned her Master of Studies at the University of Oxford in international human rights law. Jefferies serves on the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) National Refugee and Asylum Committee and is a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent-rated attorney.