Justin Brooks

California Western School of Law

225 Cedar St.

San Diego, CA 92101

(619) 525-7079

jbrooks@cwsl.edu

Education Law School/Year: J.D., American University Other Graduate School/Year: LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center College/Year: B.B.A., Temple University Bar Admissions Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., California and Michigan Practice Areas Appellate, Criminal Law Major Cases Brooks is an experienced defense attorney who has worked on a dozen death penalty cases. He is an expert on the use of DNA evidence in criminal trials and has published extensively on the death penalty, corrections and sentencing law, and other criminal law issues. As director of the California Innocence Project at California Western, Brooks works with students to seek any and all ethical and legal avenues for the release of the wrongfully convicted in California. He has worked to free several wrongfully convicted inmates, including Adam Riojas, John Stoll, Jason Kindle, San Diego’s Ken Marsh and most recently Timothy Atkins, who served more than 23 years of wrongful incarceration. Professional background Brooks began his teaching career at Georgetown Law Center in the clinical program. He then spent six years at Thomas Cooley Law School, where he taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Corrections Law, Law and Literature, and ran a death penalty clinical program in which students worked with him on death penalty cases. He has been a visiting professor at Interamerican University of Puerto Rico Law School and a visiting scholar at the University of Sheffield in England. After law school, Brooks practiced as a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C., and has continued to practice throughout his teaching career. He has published extensively on the death penalty, corrections and sentencing law, and other criminal law issues. Professional affiliations Law Professor, California Western School of Law; Executive Director, Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy; Director, LL.M. in Trial Advocacy; Project Director, Innocence Projects