Expertise
Children and the Law
Biography
Samantha Buckingham is the Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy. She teaches courses associated with the year-long clinic and supervises students who represent juvenile clients in delinquency courts in Los Angeles. In addition to her work in the clinic, Professor Buckingham teaches classes available to all students at Loyola Law School.
Prior to joining the faculty at Loyola Law School in 2008, Buckingham advocated on behalf of indigent clients for five years as a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. At PDS, she represented adults and children charged as adults in criminal court with serious felonies, including homicides. She also represented children facing delinquency adjudications in family court. As a law student, Buckingham clerked for Legal Services for Children and the Federal Public Defender, both located in San Francisco. Prior to that, she taught high school at the Maya Angelou School, a Washington D.C. charter high school for adjudicated and at-risk youth.
Buckingham serves as teaching faculty for the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School. Buckingham has also trained public defenders nationally through her work with the Gideon’s Promise and the National Juvenile Defender Center. Additionally, Professor Buckingham is a member of the Training Committee of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center.
Courses Taught
- Juvenile Justice Clinic
- Advanced Criminal Litigation Skills
- Race, Class and Criminal Justice
- Criminal Procedure
- Juvenile Delinquency Law and Procedure
Education
- BA, University of Virginia
- JD, Stanford Law School
Publications, Research and Related Material
Publications
- Memo: To Protect Our Children and Fight the Coronavirus, Release Youth from Juvenile Detention – Coronavirus, Criminal Justice Reform, Data For Progress, 4/3/2020
- Enough is Enough: Kavanaugh Should Not Sit On The Supreme Court, The American Prospect, 10/2/2018
- Trauma-Informed Juvenile Justice, 53 Am. Crim. L. Rev.641 (2016). Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2794718
- Letter to a Public Interest Attorney, Los Angeles Public Interest Law Journal Vol. 5 (2014-2015)
- A Tale of Two Systems: How Schools and Juvenile Courts are Failing Students, 13 U. Md. L.J. Race, Religion, Gender & Class 179 (Fall 2013). Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2391020
- Reducing Incarceration for Youthful Offenders with a Developmental Approach to S, 46 Loy. L.A. L. Rev 801 (Spring 2013). Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2358771
- Introduction: A New Era in Juvenile Justice, 46 Loy. L.A. L. Rev 1 (Spring 2013).
Interviews
- The Lawyers Saying ‘no’ to Kavanaugh, Interview by BBC World News, 10/5/2018
Testimony to U.S. Congress
- Congressional Testimony for Reassessing Solitary Confinement: The Human Rights, Fiscal, and Public Safety Consequences
- Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights.
- Congressional Testimony for Ending the “School to Prison Pipeline”
- Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights.
Training Materials
- Juvenile Defender Trial Skills Training Program, Center for Juvenile Law and Policy and the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center
- Public Defender Guide, LLS Guide for Aspiring Criminal Defense Social Justice Lawyers
Presentations
- Challenging Admissibility of Statements and the Interrogation of Children, National Juvenile Defender Center, Annual Summit, Minneapolis, MN, October 2018; American Association of Law Schools, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Chicago, IL, May 2018.
- Trauma Informed Juvenile Justice, Supreme Court of Arizona’s Judicial Conference, Tuscon, AZ, June, 2018; Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Independent Juvenile Panel Training, Los Angeles, May 2018; Court Leadership Conference, Flagstaff, AZ, October, 2017; National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, New York, NY, February 2017; Gault 50 year anniversary celebration, Orlando, FL, May 2017; Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, October 2017; Ventura County Public Defender, September, 2017; San Bernardino County Public Defender, September, 2017; National Juvenile Defender Center Annual Summit, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2016; Attorney General’s Office, Washington D.C., October 2016; Juvenile Delinquency Law Training Seminar, Los Angeles Public Defender, Los Angeles, CA, March 2016; Children and the Law Section, American Association of Law Schools, New York, NY, January 2016; Orleans Public Defender, October 2015; Clinical Writer’s Workshop, NYU Law School, September 2014.
- Storytelling, Cross Examination, and Developing a Theory of the Case, Litigation Talent Academy, Seattle Public Defender, Seattle Washington, April 2018.
- Considerations for Judges in Transfer of Children to Adult Criminal Court, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, San Diego, CA, March 2018.
- Race, Class, and Adolescence, Hammer Museum Constitutional Speaker Series, Los Angeles, CA, July 2017; Public Defender Service in Academia Conference, Washington, D.C., November 2014.
- Criminal Justice Reforms in Clinical Legal Education, American Association of Law Schools, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Denver, CO, May 2017.
- Adolescent Development as Mitigation in the Representation of Youthful Offenders, Gideon’s Promise, formerly the Southern Public Defender Training Center, July 2012, August 2013, August 2014, January 2016, August 2016, August 2017; San Bernardino Public Defender Office, June 2015; Orlando, Florida Public Defender, July 2014; Public Defender Retreat, Las Vegas, NV, April 2014; Public Defender Retreat, March 2009.
- Post-Election Policy Consequences on Marginalized Communities, Human Resources, Los Angeles, December 2016.
- Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope, the University of Southern California School of Social Work, the National Association of Social Work, and the USC Black Social Work Caucus, Los Angeles, November 2016.
- Using Developmental Science to Expand Roper Protections for All Youthful Clients Challenging the Death Penalty, Federal Public Defender National Capital Habeas Unit Conference, Chicago, IL, July 2016.
- Comprehensive Juvenile Defender Training, AB 703 and CA Rule of Court 5.664, Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CA, June, 2016.
- Ethical Duties of Lawyers Representing Youth in Delinquency Court, Los Angeles Delinquency Conference, Los Angeles, CA, June 2016.
- Guarding Due Process in Restorative Justice, American Association of Law Schools, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Baltimore, MD, May 2016; National Juvenile Defender Center Annual Summit, Louisville, KY, October 2014; Clinical Writer’s Workshop, NYU Law School, October 2011.
- Closing Argument, Federal Public Defender of Los Angeles, July 2015, July 2016, July 2017.
- Preparing Students to Obtain the Job of Their Dreams, American Association of Law Schools, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Palm Springs, CA, May 2015.
- Making the Most of Your Motions Practice, Gideon’s Promise, formerly the Southern Public Defender Training Center, July 2012, August 2013, August 2014.
- Developmental Considerations in Representation of Clients in the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Orlando, Florida Public Defender, July 2014; Clinical Writer’s Workshop, NYU Law School, September 2013; Beyond the Classroom: Education Rights and Identifying Weaknesses of the Public School System, Symposium for the Los Angeles Public Interest Law Journal, Loyola Law School, March 2013.
- Client-Centered Representation: Building Rapport and Trust With Every Client, Louisiana State-Wide Juvenile Defender Training, May 2014.
- Developing a Multi-Media Skills Training Program, American Association of Law Schools, Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Chicago, IL, May 2014.
- Representing Juvenile Clients in Los Angeles, Gideon’s Army Screening and Discussion, Youth Justice Coalition, Inglewood, CA, April 2014.
- Trayvon Martin’s Death and George Zimmerman’s Acquittal: A Framework for discussing implications for marginalized communities, Asians and Pacific Islanders for LGBT Equality and Latino Equality Alliance, August 2013.
- Prosecutorial Misconduct, California Supreme Court Historical Society, April 2011.
Contact
Founders Hall Second Floor
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
(o) 213.736.1328
(f) 213.380.3769