Joshua McClain
“I am excited to join the Texas Law community because I believe the law is critical to understanding and addressing inequities. I am particularly interested in the disparities -- and opportunities for rebuilding -- that come out of natural disasters. Texas is grappling with these challenges every year, and I can think of no better place, and no better group of peers and teachers, to help me learn how the law can be used to support communities in becoming more whole, resilient, and equitable.”
Josh McClain is a member of the Justice Center's student advisory board, the Public Interest Law Association, and Law Students for Black Lives, and was part of the team organizing the 2023 GRITS (Getting Radical in the South) conference. He also volunteers for the Mithoff Pro Bono Program's Gender Affirmation Project and Driver's License Recovery Project. The summer after his 1L year, Josh will work with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid's Community Development Team in Edinburgh, Texas.
Josh graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in political science and is pursuing dual JD/Master of Public Affairs degrees from Texas Law and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. At the LBJ School, which he attended for a year before starting law school, Josh worked at the newly launched Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, researching conditions of confinement and correctional oversight.
Immediately before moving to Austin for graduate school, Josh worked as a paralegal for Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Disaster Relief Project in Durham, North Carolina, assisting clients in eastern part of the state navigate the long-term hurricane recovery process. After completing the dual degree program, he plans to work directly with communities impacted by natural disasters and, eventually, to help craft law and policy to respond to a world where disasters are more frequent, forceful, and unpredictable.