A lawyer, scholar and teacher, Assistant Dean for Academic Success Programs Jessica L. West is an unabashed cheerleader of the power of a law school education. The first college graduate in her family, she is invested, skilled and dedicated to assisting students succeed in their study of the law. Everything Professor West teaches and writes is informed by fifteen years litigating complex civil and criminal matters. During her career as a litigator, she successfully used the law to fight for many clients, including individuals facing the death penalty. With a reputation as a smart and tireless advocate, West was a lawyer called upon to teach, lecture and testify on issues relating to appellate practice, criminal defense representation standards, death penalty procedures, DNA and other scientific evidence. Professor West has been a faculty member at Vermont Law School and the University of Denver School of Law, as well as a visiting researcher at Yale Law School. She brings her legal experience to her scholarship as well, writing primarily about procedural rules and their impact on substantive outcomes and addressing issues including the preclusion of evidence of juror bias, the evidentiary doctrine of relevance and community determinations of culpability trials of civilly disobedient protesters.
Learn more about Assistant Dean for Academic Success Programs Jessica West.