Deborah Cantrell

Deborah J. Cantrell focuses on issues related to lawyers and social change, including investigating the ways in which lawyers rely on value systems to create and understand their roles and to develop practical wisdom. She has written particularly about lawyers and religious value systems, and is one of only a few scholars to examine Buddhist normative principles and practices.  Professor Cantrell teaches legal ethics, legislation and regulation, and supervises the Sustainable Community Development Clinic. 

Before joining Colorado Law, Professor Cantrell taught a legal ethics clinic at Yale Law School, ran a regional anti-poverty law program in California, and supervised a statewide direct legal aid program for the rural elderly in New Mexico. She also spent time in private practice as a litigator and trial attorney.  Professor Cantrell clerked for the Honorable Ferdinand F. Fernandez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Professor Cantrell received her JD from the University of Southern California (Order of the Coif) and holds a master degree in developmental psychology from the University of California Los Angeles.

Areas of Specialty

Law and Religion; Law and Social Science; Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law; Law & Social Change; Law & Cognition

Education

JD, University of Southern California
MA, University of California, Los Angeles
BA, Smith College