Faculty Profile

Karen R. Smith

Professor of Law

A.B., Rhetoric, 1969, and J.D., 1972, University of California, Berkeley; Member, California State Bar

Courses    Publications

Email:
Phone: (213) 738-6803
Room: BW345

Karen Smith brings to the classroom both a prosecution and defense view of criminal procedure on trial and appellate levels. She began her career as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the California Attorney General's Office. Several years later, she transferred to the State Public Defender's Office and eventually to the Federal Public Defender's Office where she was appointed senior deputy federal public defender.

Professor Smith joined the Southwestern faculty in 1982. In 1991, she became director of Southwestern's Conceptual Approach to Legal Education (SCALE®) program, a position she held for the ensuing decade. She continues to teach in SCALE as well as the traditional program. She has been honored as both the Buchalter and Rosenberg Professor of Law and twice received the law school's Excellence in Teaching Award. With her insight and involvement in history-making legal developments, Professor Smith approaches teaching as a means to "pass the torch of social responsibility," which she believes is particularly important in criminal procedure.

Beyond academia, Professor Smith has served on the Federal Indigent Defense Panel; the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel; the ABA Criminal Justice Section's Standards Committee; and as a lawyer representative from the Central District to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. She served as counsel to the general counsel of the Webster-Williams Commission investigating the police response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and on the Los Angeles Work Group of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force. She lectures regularly on criminal procedure and related issues for the National Judicial College and the ABA Appellate Judges Seminars. The news media often call on Professor Smith to provide expert commentary on high profile criminal trials.