Education

Law School/Year: Santa Clara, 1975

College/Year: Stanford, 1970

Bar Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court; California; U.S. District Court, Northern and Southern California

Practice Areas

Appellate, Criminal Law, International

Major Cases

Marjorie Cohn testified as an expert on the illegality of the Iraq War at the court-martial of Pablo Paredes, the San Diego sailor who refused orders to board a ship and transport Marines to Iraq. Her testimony corroborated the reasonableness of Paredes' belief that he had a duty to disobey unlawful orders, and that he could be complicit in the commission of war crimes. He received no jail time.

Professional Background

Cohn was a staff attorney at the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, and has been a criminal defense attorney at both the trial and appellate levels for many years. She was a deputy public defender at the Fresno Public Defender, a staff attorney for Appellate Defenders, and maintained private practices in Salinas and San Diego. She has taught at Thomas Jefferson since 1991. Her courses include criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence and international human rights law. She frequently lectures and appears in the national and international media commenting on human rights and U.S. foreign policy.

Professional Affiliations

Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. She is on the Roster of Experts at the Institute for Public Accuracy, and the Advisory Board of the Haywood Burns Fellowships for Social and Economic Justice. Cohn is a partner at the Centre of Theory and Legal Practice of European Integration at University of Szczecin, Poland. She writes regular columns for the LA Daily Journal, and is a contributing editor to Jurist, MWC News Magazine and Guild Practitioner.

Personal Affiliations

Cohn is author of the book Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of the book Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice. Cohn has published articles in such journals as Fordham Law Review, Hastings Law Journal and Virginia Journal of International Law, as well as The National Law Journal, Christian Science Monitor and Chicago Tribune. She is the official reviewer for Encarta Encyclopedia’s Torture and Geneva Conventions listings. She provides legal and political commentary on CBS News, Court TV, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Air America Radio, NPR and Pacifica Radio.

Personal Background

Cohn was the 2005 recipient of the San Diego County Bar Association's Service to Legal Education Award, a 2006 recipient of the The Daily Transcript's Top Attorneys in Academics award, and the 2007 recipient of the Law Library Justice Foundation's Bernard Witkin Esq. Excellence in Teaching Award. In 1978, she was a legal observer in Iran on behalf of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Cohn has participated in delegations to Cuba, China and Yugoslavia. She lived in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish.