Michael Pinard, JD
Titles
Francis & Harriet Iglehart Professor of Law
Faculty Director, Gibson-Banks Center for Race & the Law
Director, Clinical Law Program
School Affiliation
Carey School of Law
Specialties
Race and the Law
criminal law
criminal legal system
About
Michael Pinard is the Francis & Harriet Iglehart Professor of Law, faculty director of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law, and director of the Clinical Law Program. Professor Pinard writes and teaches broadly about race, intersectionality, and the criminal legal system, including the criminalization of race (children, adults, and communities); policing; incarceration; criminal records; exclusionary school discipline of K-12 students; and the intersectional harms of the criminal and civil legal systems. Professor Pinard currently teaches the Youth, Education, and Justice Clinic, in which he and his students represent children who have been pushed out of school through suspension, expulsion, and other means as well as individuals serving life sentences for offenses that occurred when they were children or young adults. The clinic also works on policy and legislative initiatives aimed to keep children in school (and away from the youth/criminal legal systems) and to provide (and broaden) meaningful opportunities for release from incarceration. In fall 2024, Professor Pinard will teach a new course, Race and Decarceration in Maryland. Professor Pinard has also taught the Reentry Clinic; Law and Social Change (1L elective); Policing, Communities, and the Law; the Permanence of Criminal Records; Freddie Gray’s Baltimore: Past, Present and Moving Forward (with colleagues); Criminal Procedure; Criminal Procedure II; Legal Profession; the Criminal Defense Clinic; and Comparative Criminal Process (Aberdeen, Scotland). Professor Pinard has worked to improve the criminal legal system nationally and locally through legislative and policy advocacy, scholarship, opinion pieces, and participation in various working and advisory groups. He serves on the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative, a partnership led by Office of the Attorney General and Office of the Public Defender focused on reducing incarceration in Maryland. Recently, he served on the transition team for Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown as co-lead of the Public Safety Team. Professor Pinard currently serves as board chair of the Gault Center, as a commissioner with the Maryland Access to Justice Commission, and on the leadership council of the Public Justice Center. He has served as a board member of the Public Justice Center, an advisory committee member of the Maryland Reentry Partnership and the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and as chair of the Maryland State Bar Associations Legal Education and Bar Admissions Committee.
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Tagged: Caring for the Human Condition Legal Theory and Practice Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion