Lara Bazelon

Lara Bazelon is a law professor and writer. The recipient of MacDowell and Mesa Refuge residencies, her op-eds and essays have been published in the New York Times,The Atlantic Magazine, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Slate, and Politico, among other media outlets. She is the author of the nonfiction book, "AMBITIOUS LIKE A MOTHER: WHY PRIORITIZING YOUR JOB IS GOOD FOR YOUR KIDS."

Bazelon is a professor of law and the director of the Criminal Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinical Programs at the University of San Francisco School of Law. From 2012-2015, she was a visiting associate clinical professor at Loyola Law School and the director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent. Professor Bazelon was a trial attorney in the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles for seven years. Prior to that, she was a law clerk for the Honorable Harry Pregerson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Bazelon’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of ethics and criminal justice advocacy. Her most recent law review article, "Ending Innocence Denying," will appear in Volume 47 of the Hofstra Law Review. She is the co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Ethics, Gideon & Professionalism Committee. In January 2017, she was selected to serve a three-year term on the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Council.

Professor Bazelon is a contributing writer for Slate and Politico Magazine, where her long-form journalism and opinion pieces appear regularly, including a long-running series in Slate on issues arising from wrongful convictions. Her essays and op-eds have also been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times.

Professor Bazelon’s book "Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction" was published in October 2018. She is the recipient of a writer-in-residency award from the MacDowell Colony in 2016 and from Mesa Refuge in 2017, where she was named the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Fellow for excellence in writing about issues relating to the criminal justice system.