Faculty Profile: Jennifer E Laurin
Main Profile Content
Biography
Jennifer Laurin joined the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law in 2009. Professor Laurin studies and writes about how law and institutional design shape the functioning of criminal justice institutions. Her scholarship has considered, the role of constitutional litigation in regulating police, the shared roles of courts, police, and lawyers in regulating forensic science, and oversight of indigent defense. Professor Laurin is a co-author (with Michael Avery, David Rudovsky, and Karen Blum) of Police Misconduct: Law and Litigation, the leading treatise in that area of civil rights litigation.
Professor Laurin is active in criminal justice law reform efforts. She currently serves as Reporter to the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Standards Task Force charged with updating the 1996 3rd Edition Discovery Standards, and she is the former Chair of the Texas Capital Punishment Assessment team, organized under the auspices of the American Bar Association.
Professor Laurin received her undergraduate degree in Politics from Earlham College. She earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was an Executive Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review. She served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas Griesa of the Southern District of New York and Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and spent several years as a litigation associate with the New York City civil rights firm of Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, LLP (formerly Cochran Neufeld & Scheck, LLP).
Most Recent Media
Read more Jennifer E Laurin In the News posts.
Courses for Spring 2023
View Course HistoryProfessional Activities
2017
October 4, 2017
Op Ed: Why It's Time for an Independent Lab in Austin
Austin American Statesman op ed urging Austin to make its forensic science laboratory independent of police
2015
July 27, 2015
Op Ed: Texas Could Do More to Rein in Bad Policing
Dallas Morning News op ed urging Texas to pass legisation barring arrests for minor traffic offenses.
2012
March 29, 2012
Prosecutorial Oversight in Texas
University of Texas School of Law
Moderated a public forum and roundtable discussion on prosecutorial oversight as part of a national tour, Prosecutorial Oversight in the Wake of Connick v. Thompson.
February 8, 2012
Delivered Stephanie K. Seymour Lecture in Law,
University of Tulsa College of Law
February 3, 2012
Organized conference on civil rights litigation, "Barriers and Innovations in Civil Rights Litigation Since 9/11: Practical and Theoretical Perspectives," with William Wayne Justice Center
University of Texas School of Law
2010
July 30, 2010
Op Ed: Legislature Should Affirm Forensic Commission's Investigative Authority
Austin American Statesman op ed arguing that legislature should clarify Texas Forensic Science Commission investigative authority