Speakers

Renée Laurent, formerly Renée McDonald Hutchins, is Dean and professor of law at the Maryland Carey School of Law. In a very real sense, Dean Laurent’s appointment to lead the school was a homecoming.

Before to returning to Maryland Carey Law, Laurent served as Dean and Rauh Chair of Public Interest Law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. For the fourteen years prior to that Laurent was a member of the faculty at Maryland Carey Law. At the law school, Laurent taught the Appellate and Post-Conviction Advocacy Clinic, Criminal Procedure, Fourth Circuit Decisions, and a criminal appeals seminar.

Dean Laurent is widely recognized as a leading expert on the Fourth Amendment and criminal appellate practice. She has authored or co-authored three textbooks and was a contributor to the popular press book "Policing the Black Man." She is also the author of several scholarly articles. Dean Laurent, who has worked as a federal prosecutor, as an appellate defense attorney, and in private practice, is a member of the American Law Institute. She currently serves on the Executive Committee for the American Association of Law Schools, on the Board of Directors for AccessLex, and on West Academic Publishing’s Law School Advisory Board. She was also appointed by Governor Wes Moore to chair the Appellate Courts Judicial Nominating Commission.

Dean Laurent graduated cum laude from Spelman College with a BA in Mathematics. She went on to earn her JD from Yale Law School. Dean Laurent clerked for the late Hon. Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.