Justin P. Brooks 
Executive Director, Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy
Institute Professor
Director, LL.M. in Trial Advocacy
Project Director, California Innocence Project
LL.M. Georgetown University [advocacy]
J.D. American University
B.B.A. Temple University [business law]
Courses Taught: California Innocence Project I & II, Comparative & International Criminal Procedure, LL.M. Federal Criminal Practice, LL.M. Federal Sentencing, Criminal Procedure and Criminal Law, Wrongful Convictions Seminar
Professor Justin Brooks is the Director of the California Innocence Project, the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy, and California Western's LL.M. in Trial Advocacy Specializing in Federal Criminal Law. He has served as counsel on many high profile cases that have resulted in exonerations of inmates who were wrongfully convicted including the cases of Tim Atkins, John Stoll, and Ken Marsh, who all served more than 20 years in prison before they were exonerated. His criminal defense work in California has been recognized by The Los Angeles Daily Journal as they annually list him among the Top 100 Lawyers in California. In 2010, California Lawyer Magazine awarded him the prestigious "Lawyer of the Year" award.
Prior to coming to California, Professor Brooks practiced as a criminal defense attorney in Washington D.C., Michigan, and Illinois. He began his teaching career as a professor at Georgetown Law Center. He has also taught at Thomas Cooley and visited as a professor at Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, University of Sheffield (U.K.), South Texas College of Law's Prague and Malta summer programs, and New England School of Law's Galway summer program. Professor Brooks has been very involved in training Latin American lawyers. He founded the only trial skills academy in the country conducted in Spanish and he travels around Latin America training attorneys, judges, and law enforcement agents on trial skills and criminal forensics. He has taught in CWSL's Chile summer program and co-founded Inocente and Acceso Capacitacion with Professor Jamie Cooper. That project is devoted to bringing resources to Latin America to help free the innocent. He has published extensively on the death penalty, corrections and sentencing law, and other criminal law issues.
Selected Publications
- "The Hurricane Meets the Paper Chase: Innocence Projects New Emerging Role in Clinical Legal Education," 38 California Western Law Review 413 (co-authored with Stiglitz & Shulman) (2002).
- "The Politics of Prisons," 77 Michigan Bar Journal 154 (1998).
- "Will Boys Just be "Boyz N the Hood"? African-American Directors Portray a Crumbling Justice System in Urban America," 22 Oklahoma City University Law Review 1 (1997).
- "Justice For Sale: Is a Death Row Inmate Entitled to Discovery After the Judge Who Presided at Trial is Convicted of Taking Bribes to Fix Cases," 7 Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases 433 (1997).
- "How Can We Sleep While the Beds Are Burning? The Tumultuous Prison Culture of Attica Flourishes in American Prisons Twenty-Five Years Later," 45 Syracuse Law Review 159 (1996). Reprinted in Prisoners and the Law (Ira Robbins).
- "The Dire Wolf Collects his Due While the Boys Sit by the Fire: Michigan Cannot Afford to Buy into the Death Penalty," 13 Thomas M. Cooley Law Review 877 (co-authored with Erickson) (1996).
Class Webpages
Links
Professor Brooks' Media Appearances - 2005, 2006, 2007 |
jbrooks@cwsl.edu
619-525-7079
350 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Publications
Class Webpages
Links
Listen to Prof. Brooks on the CWSL Podcast
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