Roberta K. Thyfault

Legal Writing Professor

J.D. California Western School of Law
[magna cum laude]
B.A. Metropolitan State College of Denver [psychology]

Courses Taught:  Introduction to Legal Skills, Legal Skills I & II, Legal Research & Writing: Selected Topics, Legal Scholarship Training Seminar, Internship Seminar

Before coming to California Western full time in 2001, Professor Thyfault, a criminal appellate attorney since 1989, was an adjunct professor at the law school, and prior to that, staff attorney for Appellate Defenders, Inc. She was a law clerk to Ninth Circuit Court Judge David R. Thompson in 1986, and to U.S. District Judge Sherman G. Finesilver, the chief judge for the District of Colorado, in 1985-1986. Prior to enrolling at California Western, Thyfault conducted research and data analysis for the National Institute of Mental Health funded Battered Women Research Project, and provided assistance to attorneys representing battered women charged with criminal offenses.

On May 16, 2007, Roberta Thyfault lectured at the Diplomado Internacional Estado de Derecho y Acceso a la Justicia in Santiago, Chile, a program that is jointly sponsored by the University of Heidelberg, The University of Chile, and California Western School of Law.  In her lecture, Professor Thyfault compared the United States Supreme Court and the German Federal Constitutional Court and decisions from those two Courts on the issues of the right to life and the freedom of assembly.    

Selected Publications

• "Legal and Systems Issues in the Assessment of Family Violence Involving Adults," Assessment of Family Violence: A Clinical and Legal Sourcebook 73 (R.T. Ammerman and M. Hersen, eds., 2nd ed., 1999).
• "Self Defense: Battered Woman Syndrome On Trial," 20 California Western Law Review 485 (1984); reprinted in Battered Women Who Kill 27 (Johann & Osanka, eds., 1989).
• with Browne & Walker, "When Battered Women Kill: Evaluation and Expert Witness Testimony Techniques," in Domestic Violence on Trial (Sonkin ed., 1987).
• with Bennett & Hirschhorn, "Battered Women in Court: Jury and Trial Consultants and Expert Witnesses," in Domestic Violence on Trial (Sonkin ed., 1987).
• "Beyond the Juror’s Ken: Battered Women," 7 Vermont Law Review 1 (1982).

Class Webpages

• Legal Skills I

rthyfault@cwsl.edu   
619-525-1412
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101

Publications

Class Webpages