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Lara Bazelon

Summary

Lara Bazelon (born February 14, 1974) is an American academic and journalist. She is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law where she holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy and directs the Criminal & Juvenile and Racial Justice Clinics.[1] She is the former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles.[2] Her clinical work as a law professor focuses on the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted.[3]

Lara Bazelon
Bazelon photographed in a garden in November 2015
Bazelon in 2015
Born (1974-02-14) February 14, 1974 (age 50)
EducationColumbia University (BA) New York University (JD)
Occupation(s)Law professor, journalist, essayist
EmployerUniversity of San Francisco
Notable credit(s)The New York Times
Slate
The Atlantic
OfficeBarnett Chair in Trial Advocacy
RelativesDavid L. Bazelon (grandfather)
Emily Bazelon (sister)

She is the author of two nonfiction books: Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction (Beacon Press 2018)[4] and Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career is Good For Your Kids (Little Brown 2022),[5][6] and the author of the novel A Good Mother (Hanover Sq. Press 2021).[7][8]

Early life and education edit

Bazelon grew up in Philadelphia. Her father is an attorney and her mother is a psychiatrist.[9]

She attended Germantown Friends School,[10] where she was on the tennis team. She has three sisters: Emily Bazelon, an award-winning New York Times journalist and author; Jill Bazelon, who founded an organization that provides financial literacy classes free of charge to low income high school students and individuals;[11] and Dana Bazelon, senior policy counsel to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.[12] The Bazelon family are Jewish.[9][13]

Bazelon is the granddaughter of David L. Bazelon, formerly a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,[14] and second cousin twice removed of feminist Betty Friedan.[15]

Bazelon graduated cum laude from Columbia University in 1996,[16][17] and received her J.D. from NYU School of Law[18] where she was an editor of the NYU Law Review. Her note, Exploding the Superpredator Myth,[19] won the Paul D. Kaufman Memorial Award and was cited by Bryan Stevenson in his Supreme Court brief in Sullivan v. Florida, where he successfully argued that the Eighth Amendment forbade the sentencing of juveniles to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for crimes committed before the age of 13.[20] After law school Bazelon worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Harry Pregerson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[21]

Academic career edit

After seven years as a trial attorney in the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles, Bazelon was awarded a clinical teaching fellowship at the UC Hastings College of the Law.[22] From 2012 to 2015, Bazelon was a visiting associate professor and the director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles.[23] In 2017, Bazelon joined the faculty of the University of San Francisco School of Law as an associate professor and the director of the Criminal and Juvenile and Racial Justice Clinics.[24] In 2019, she was awarded tenure.[25] In 2020, she was awarded the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy.[26]

Exonerations edit

While leading the Loyola Project for the Innocent, Bazelon was the lead counsel for Kash Register, who was exonerated on November 7, 2013, for a murder he did not commit after 34 years imprisonment.[27] Register won a $16.7 million judgment from the city and county of Los Angeles in 2016, the largest settlement in the history of Los Angeles.[28]

From 2019 to 2021, Bazelon and her law students at the University of San Francisco School of Law represented Louisiana prisoner Yutico Briley Jr., who was sentenced to 60 years with no possibility of parole at the age of 19 for an armed robbery he did not commit.[29] The story of Briley's exoneration — and the collaboration of Lara and her sister Emily Bazelon in helping to bring it about — was the cover story of the New York Times Magazine in July 2021, written by Emily Bazelon.[30]

Joaquin Ciria was freed after the San Francisco District Attorney's Innocence Commission, chaired by Bazelon, reinvestigated Ciria's case and recommended that the District Attorney seek to overturn his conviction.[31] San Francisco Superior Court Judge Brendon Conroy vacated Ciria's conviction on April 18, 2022, and he was released from jail on April 20, 2022, having serving 31 years in prison.[32]

Bar complaints edit

In 2018, Bazelon began filing bar complaints against prosecutors whom judges had found to have committed misconduct. But as Radley Balko wrote in the Washington Post, Bazelon met with no success: "none of the eight complaints resulted in significant disciplinary action."[33] Bazelon told the Washington Post she was particularly troubled by the case of Jamal Trulove, who was wrongfully convicted due to the misconduct of Assistant District Attorney Linda Allen. After the Court of Appeal overturned Trulove's conviction, Allen was allowed to retry him.[34] Following his acquittal, Trulove sued the city and county of San Francisco and received a $13.1 million judgment.[35] The State Bar of California took no action against Allen in response to Bazelon's complaint.[33] Represented by the law firm Jones Day, Bazelon took a writ to the California Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case by a vote of 5–1 with one justice recusing himself.[36]

Academic writing edit

Bazelon's scholarship examining issues at the intersection of criminal justice and ethics as well as restorative justice as an alternative to incarceration, has been published in The Fordham Law Review,[37] the Hofstra Law Review,[38] the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics,[39] the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law,[40] the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law,[41] and the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.[42] Bazelon is quoted frequently in national and local media as an expert on criminal justice issues.[43] She serves as a voting member of the ABA Criminal Justice Section's Council, the policymaking body for the organization on criminal justice issues.[44]

Journalism edit

Bazelon writes regularly about criminal justice issues with a particular focus on how the legal system is affected by racism, sexism, and other biases.[45] She has written for The Atlantic about the gender bias female trial lawyers face[46] and how the felony murder rule disproportionately impacts women and people of color.[47] Her long running series on wrongful convictions has appeared in Slate since 2015 and her Innocence Deniers article was Slate's cover story in 2018.[48] A feminist and progressive Democrat, she also regularly draws criticism from the left for her critiques of other Democrats and progressive-leaning institutions. Her New York Times op-ed "Kamala Harris Was Not A 'Progressive Prosecutor'"[49] sparked nationwide debate. Assessing the impact of Bazelon's critique, Politico wrote, “after a prominent law professor tore apart her record in a New York Times op-ed,” Harris faced “months of criticism of [her career] as a district attorney and state attorney general, thwarting her efforts to win over reform-minded liberals.”[50] Bazelon has also drawn criticism for her support for the Title IX regulations promulgated by the Trump Administration, writing in another New York Times op-ed that they were necessary to provide due process protections for the accused[51] following a lengthier article published in Politico Magazine.[52] She and her students in the USF Racial Justice Clinic represent students of color accused of Title IX offenses who lack the means to hire an attorney.[53]

Bazelon's article in New York Magazine, "Did David Simon Glorify Baltimore’s Detectives?" which examined the role of officers who became characters in The Wire in contributing to wrongful convictions, will be re-printed in the forthcoming anthology Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit and Obsession (Ecco 2023) edited by Sarah Weinman.[54]

Bazelon's often contrarian positions have led to media appearances across the political spectrum including NPR,[55] MSNBC,[56] CNN,[57] Fox News,[58] and the popular podcasts Pod Save the People,[59] The Glenn Show,[60] The Fifth Column,[61] and The Unspeakable.[62] She is a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance, a coalition of “college and university faculty members who are dedicated to upholding the principle of academic freedom.”[63]

Personal essays edit

A divorced mother of two, Bazelon writes frequently about her family. In 2015, The New York Times published Bazelon's essay, "From Divorce, a Fractured Beauty", as a Modern Love column.[64] The essay was also featured in the Modern Love podcast, read by the actress Molly Ringwald.[65] Bazelon's other personal essays in the New York Times include "Who Said Game of Thrones Wasn't For Kids",[66] "I Didn't Want Co-Sleeping to End",[67] and "I've Picked My Job Over My Kids"[68] which led to appearances on Good Morning America[69] and the Tamron Hall Show.[70] Her book, Ambitious Like A Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career is Good for Your Kids, published in 2022, is an expansion on that thesis.[71]

Chesa Boudin edit

Bazelon was an early supporter of Chesa Boudin's campaign to become San Francisco District Attorney in 2019, and served as a member of his policy team.[72] In 2020, Boudin appointed Bazelon to chair his newly created Innocence Commission, a panel of five experts serving pro bono to re-investigate credible claims of wrongful conviction and transmit its findings to the DA.[73] In 2021, acting on the recommendation of the Innocence Commission, DA Boudin conceded that Joaquin Ciria, convicted of murder in San Francisco in 1991, was factually innocent.[74]

During the campaign to recall Chesa Boudin, Bazelon was one of his most outspoken advocates.[75] Her defenses of Boudin were quoted in numerous media outlets including The New York Times,[76] The New Yorker,[77] The Atlantic,[78] and The San Francisco Chronicle.[79]

Personal life edit

Bazelon lives in San Francisco, California. She and her ex-husband, attorney Matthew Dirkes, share custody of their two children.[80]

Honors and awards edit

In 2020, Bazelon was elected to the American Law Institute.[81]

In 2017, Bazelon was a Langeloth Fellow and Mesa Fellow writer in residence.[82]

In 2016, Bazelon was a MacDowell writer in residence.[83]

References edit

  1. ^ "Lara Bazelon". University of San Francisco School of Law. University of San Francisco. 26 May 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Loyola Project for the Innocent Client Finds New Life Helping Other Exonerees". Loyola School of Law. Loyola Marymount University. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  3. ^ Gross, Terry (July 8, 2021). "An Innocent Man Walks Free From A 60-Year Sentence With Help From A Journalist". Fresh Air. NPR. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  4. ^ Armour, Marilyn (November 19, 2018). "Book Review: 'Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction to Find a Way Back'". Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. The Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  5. ^ Bazelon, Lara (April 19, 2022). Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career Is Good for Your Kids. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9781549185748. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  6. ^ Wright, Jennifer (May 31, 2022). "Millennial men want 1950s housewives after they have kids". New York Post. NYP Holdings. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  7. ^ Bazelon, Lara (May 11, 2021). A Good Mother. New York, NY: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1335916099. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  8. ^ Lyall, Sarah (27 May 2021). "Nail-biting, Nerve-shredding Novels That Will Keep You Up at Night". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  9. ^ a b Wilensky, Sheila (September 12, 2013). "Social, legal facets of bullying topic for author, Yale law grad". Arizona Jewish Post. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  10. ^ "Class Notes". GFS Bulletin. No. Volume II 2020. Germantown Friends School. Issuu. Retrieved 30 May 2022. {{cite news}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  11. ^ Heller, Karen (April 11, 2012). "Classes in financial literacy open eyes, doors". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. A02. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  12. ^ D'Onofrio, Michael (May 4, 2018). "D.A. makes way for people to clear records". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  13. ^ "Emily Bazelon". Jewish Women's Archive.
  14. ^ In Brief Archived 2008-11-28 at the Wayback Machine, Summer 2003, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
  15. ^ Bazelon, Emily (February 5, 2006). "Shopping With Betty". Slate. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
  16. ^ "Welcome to New Board Member Lara Bazelon!". The Mesa Refuge. Mesa Refuge. January 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  17. ^ "Bookshelf". Columbia College Today. 2022-01-18. Retrieved 2022-05-30.
  18. ^ "Sexual Assault Prosecution Panel Bios". Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College. John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  19. ^ Bazelon, Lara (April 2000). "Exploding the Superpredator Myth: Why Infancy is the Preadolescent's Best Defense in Juvenile Court". New York University Law Review. Vol. 75, no. 1. New York University. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  20. ^ "JOE HARRIS SULLIVAN, Petitioner, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Respondent" (PDF). The Equal Justice Initiative. The Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  21. ^ "Arizona State University: Systemic Racism – Defining Terms and Evaluating Evidence". The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America's Founding Principles and History. Jack Miller Center. 14 January 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Spring 2012 Workshop, The Talaris Center, Seattle, June 22-24, 2012, Participant Biographies" (PDF). The National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  23. ^ Moreno, Feliz (March 2021). "Unstacking The Deck". The Sun. No. 543. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  24. ^ "Lara Bazelon to Lead USF's Criminal and Racial Justice Law Clinics". USF Lawyer. No. Fall 2017. University of San Francisco School of Law. Issuu. Dec 6, 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  25. ^ "Living the Law - Lara Bazelon earns tenure". University of San Francisco School of Law. University of San Francisco. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  26. ^ Temkar, Arvin (20 April 2020). "Lara Bazelon Named Barnett Professor of Trial Advocacy". University of San Francisco School of Law. University of San Francisco. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  27. ^ Powers, Ashley (November 7, 2013). "Witness' sister helps free man convicted in 1979 killing". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  28. ^ Alpert Reyes, Emily (January 19, 2016). "L.A. to pay $24 million to two men imprisoned for decades after wrongful murder convictions". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  29. ^ Sledge, Matt (March 19, 2021). "A man serving 60 years for armed robbery is free after Jason Williams clears the way for release". The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Georges Media Group. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  30. ^ Bazelon, Emily (June 30, 2021). "I Write About the Law. But Could I Really Help Free a Prisoner?". The New York Times Magazine. No. July 2021. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  31. ^ Sharpe, Joshua (April 18, 2022). "He spent 30 years in prison on a wrongful murder conviction. A Chesa Boudin campaign promise will free him". The San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  32. ^ Choi, Kenny (April 20, 2022). "Joaquin Ciria Set Free After Being Exonerated for 1990 SF Homicide; 'It Is a Happy Moment'". CBS News Bay Area. CBS. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  33. ^ a b Balko, Radley (November 18, 2021). "Why prosecutors get away with misconduct". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  34. ^ "Jamal Trulove". The National Registry of Exonerations. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  35. ^ Greschler, Gabe (January 12, 2020). "Why Did San Francisco's New District Attorney Fire Seven Prosecutors?". KQED. KQED. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  36. ^ "N RE THE ACCUSATION OF LARA BAZELON, AGAINST LINDA JOANNE ALLEN" (PDF). Horitz & Levy LLP. The Supreme Court of the State of California. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  37. ^ Bazelon, Lara; Green, Bruce (May 11, 2020). "Restorative Justice From Prosecutors' Perspective". Fordham Law Review. 2020 (1). SSRN 3598618. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  38. ^ Bazelon, Lara (2018). "Ending Innocence Denying". Hofstra Law Review. 47 (2). Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  39. ^ Bazelon, Lara (2016). "For Shame: The Public Humiliation of Prosecutors by Judges to Correct Wrongful Convictions". Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. 29 (305). SSRN 2764506. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  40. ^ Bazelon, Lara (Fall 2011). "Hard Lessons: The Role of Law Schools in Addressing Prosecutorial Misconduct" (PDF). The Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. 16 (2). Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  41. ^ Bazelon, Lara; Green, Bruce (2020). "Victims' Rights from a Restorative Perspective". Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. 17 (1). Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  42. ^ Bazelon, Lara (Fall 2016). "The Long Goodbye: After the Innocence Movement, Does the Attorney-Client Relationship Ever End?". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 106 (4). Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  43. ^ "Lara Bazelon". Change Industries. Color of Change. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  44. ^ "Criminal Justice Section". American Bar Association. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  45. ^ Cowles, Charlotte (December 1, 2017). "A Lawyer of Many Talents: Lara Bazelon Talks Family, Justice, and Ambition". The M Dash. M.M. LaFleur. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  46. ^ Bazelon, Lara (September 2018). "What It Takes to Be a Trial Lawyer If You're Not a Man". The Atlantic. No. September 2018. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  47. ^ Bazelon, Lara (February 16, 2021). "Anissa Jordan Took Part in a Robbery. She Went to Prison for Murder". The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  48. ^ Bazelon, Lara (Jan 10, 2018). "The Innocence Deniers". Slate. The Slate Group LLC. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  49. ^ Bazelon, Lara (January 17, 2019). "Kamala Harris Was Not a 'Progressive Prosecutor'". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  50. ^ Cadelago, Christopher (June 7, 2020). "How Kamala Harris seized the moment on race and police reform". Politico Magazine. Politico LLC. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  51. ^ Bazelon, Lara (December 4, 2018). "I'm a Democrat and a Feminist. And I Support Betsy DeVos's Title IX Reforms". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  52. ^ Bazelon, Lara (April 18, 2017). "The Landmark Sexual Assault Case You've Probably Never Heard Of". Politico Magazine. Politico LLC. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  53. ^ Poff, Jeremiah (December 17, 2018). "This professor started a legal clinic for black students accused of rape. She's getting threats". The College Fix. The Student Free Press Association. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  54. ^ Weinman, Sarah (2023). Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession. New York, NY: Ecco Press. ISBN 978-0062839886. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  55. ^ Simon, Scott (January 13, 2018). "When Prosecutors Are 'Innocence Deniers'". Weekend Edition Saturday. NPR. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  56. ^ Reid, Joy (October 21, 2020). "For the Prosecution". Kamala: Next in Line. MSNBC. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  57. ^ "Professor: Hiring woman prosecutor 'offensive'". CNN politics. CNN. September 26, 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  58. ^ "Alyssa Milano pans proposed Title IX changes". Fox News. December 11, 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  59. ^ "Play the Long Game". Pod Save the People. Crooked Media. PodKnife. January 15, 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  60. ^ Loury, Glenn (August 6, 2021). "Parents, Children, and Systemic Racism". The Glenn Show. BloggingHeads.tv. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  61. ^ Foster, Kmele; Welch, Matt; Moynihan, Michael C. (May 13, 2022). "This Podcast is Violence". The Fifth Column. No. 357. Substack. Podchaser. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  62. ^ Daum, Meghan (October 24, 2021). "What Is a "Good Mother?" Lara Bazelon on Female Ambition, Biological Realities and Going To Trial". The Unspeakable Podcast. The Unspeakable Podcast. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  63. ^ "Founding Members". Academic Freedom Alliance. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  64. ^ Bazelon, Lara (September 24, 2015). "From Divorce, a Fractured Beauty". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  65. ^ Ringwald, Molly (November 23, 2016). "Fractured Beauty". Modern Love: The Podcast. WBUR. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  66. ^ Bazelon, Lara (December 11, 2015). "Who Said 'Game of Thrones' Wasn't for Kids?". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  67. ^ Bazelon, Lara (July 13, 2018). "I Didn't Want Co-Sleeping to End". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  68. ^ Bazelon, Lara (June 29, 2019). "I've Picked My Job Over My Kids". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  69. ^ "Mom says she has 'picked my job over my kids' in opinion essay, sparks debate". Good Morning America. ABC. July 2, 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  70. ^ Hall, Tamron (December 1, 2020). "Do Traditional Housewives Still Exist in 2020?". The Tamron Hall Show. ABC. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  71. ^ Belkin, Lisa (April 19, 2022). "The Work-Life-Balance Library Welcomes Another Title". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  72. ^ Redmond, Tim (January 14, 2020). "The Chron's bizarre (but predictable) attack on Chesa Boudin". 48hills. San Francisco Progressive Media Center. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  73. ^ "The Innocence Commission". San Francisco District Attorney. City of San Francisco. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  74. ^ Barba, Michael (April 18, 2022). "DA Chesa Boudin's Innocence Commission Helps Free Man 3 Decades After Conviction in SoMa Murder Case". The San Francisco Standard. The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  75. ^ "San Francisco Decides: The District Attorney Recall Election". San Francisco Decides. The Commonwealth Club. May 17, 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  76. ^ Arango, Tim (November 10, 2021). "San Francisco's Top Prosecutor Will Face a Recall Election". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  77. ^ Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (July 29, 2021). "The Trial of Chesa Boudin". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  78. ^ Brownstein, Ronald (April 28, 2022). "Why California Wants to Recall Its Most Progressive Prosecutors". The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Company. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  79. ^ Cassidy, Megan (August 17, 2021). "Chesa Boudin and San Francisco's bitter debate over crime". The San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  80. ^ Bazelon, Lara (September 30, 2021). "Divorce Can Be an Act of Radical Self-Love". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  81. ^ "Professor Lara Bazelon". The American Law Institute. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  82. ^ "Lara Bazelon". The Mesa Refuge. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  83. ^ "Lara Bazelon". MacDowell. Retrieved 30 May 2022.

External links edit

  • Official website

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