Professor Howard's research and teaching interests center in the areas of evidence, criminal procedure, prosecutorial ethics, the law of juries, and trial advocacy. She has served as director of the law school's Trial Advocacy Program, director of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy’s Northwest Regional Trial Skills program, and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong. Professor Howard has taught trial advocacy for over 25 years: in addition to teaching at the UW School of Law, she has taught trial skills at Harvard Law School, Emory Law School and Loyola University law school. She has also taught at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy programs at Stanford University, University of San Francisco, William Mitchell College of Law, Seattle University, and University of Colorado law school.
Professor Howard began her career as a civil litigator with a large national law firm, where she concentrated her practice in commercial and employment law. After twelve years, she moved to the King County Prosecutor's Office where she tried criminal felony cases. She later became a judge pro tempore, presiding over both civil and criminal trials, until joining the law school faculty in 2002.
In addition to her law school teaching, Professor Howard has worked with trial lawyers internationally, consulting on pending cases and training attorneys. Her work has taken her all over the world, from the University of Nairobi Kenya School of Law in Africa to the Department of Public Prosecutions in Dublin, Ireland.
Professor Howard co-authors a treatise on Washington evidence law with Professor Robert Aronson and serves on the Washington Pattern Jury Instruction Committee. She writes and speaks nationally on evidence and trial advocacy and has appeared on several television programs as a legal commentator. Professor Howard is admitted to practice in Washington and California, and before the Supreme Court of the United States.