Amber Baylor

Amber Baylor is the founding director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, which focuses on defense representation in local criminal charges. The clinic provides defense in Texas municipal criminal courts and works with clients and advocates as counsel on federal clemency and compassionate release campaigns. Since joining the Columbia Law School in 2021, Baylor’s work has centered on local criminal regulation and its impacts on communities targeted by intensive policing. Baylor also has written about historic advocacy by women in prison, women and pretrial detention, and the impact of trauma from pretrial detention. Baylor’s scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as the Washington University Law Review, New Mexico Law Review, and Michigan Journal of Gender and Law on topics that include pedagogy for representation of community-based organizations; enforcement and regulation of municipal low-level crimes in communities of color; and use of low-level criminal charges in student discipline.