Apply Visit Give
Apply Visit Give
Apply Visit Give
Apply Visit Give

Samantha Buckingham

Samantha Buckingham, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Director Emeritus, Juvenile Justice Clinic; Of Counsel, Center for Juvenile Law

Visiting Associate Professor of Law
Director Emeritus, Juvenile Justice Clinic; Of Counsel, Center for Juvenile Law 

Courses Taught

  • Juvenile Justice Clinic
  • Advanced Criminal Litigation Skills
  • Race, Class and Criminal Justice
  • Criminal Procedure
  • Juvenile Delinquency Law and Procedure 

Links

Education

  • BA, University of Virginia
  • JD, Stanford Law School

Background

Samantha Buckingham strives to bring real-life experience and an empathetic human perspective on the practice of law to all of her students. She is a seasoned criminal and juvenile defender and teaches classes related to Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Juvenile Law, Race and the Law, and Trial Practice.

Buckingham is well-recognized as an expert in juvenile justice, adolescent development, trauma, and best practices in indigent defense. Buckingham has published several law review articles related to developmentally appropriate treatment of youth in the juvenile justice system. Buckingham trains professionals nationwide, including judges and prosecutors. Buckingham trains public defenders locally and nationally through her work with Gideon’s Promise, the National and Pacific Juvenile Defender Centers, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Buckingham has also submitted amicus briefs and written testimony to Congress, coordinated strategy for cases ascending to the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal, and served as an expert in numerous cases around the country, including as a Strickland expert opining on ineffective assistance of counsel.

Prior to joining the faculty at Loyola Law School, Buckingham defended indigent clients as trial lawyer at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). At PDS, Buckingham gained extensive litigation experience trying cases on behalf of children and adults, including homicides.

Buckingham has experience teaching in a number of roles beyond the law school classroom. Buckingham has been honored by the time she spent supervising law students and litigating cases on behalf of indigent youth at Loyola’s Juvenile Justice Clinic. Buckingham served as the clinic’s Director for a decade. Currently, Buckingham is Director Emeritus of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Of Counsel at the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy (“CJLP”), a non-profit organization at Loyola fostering systemic reform of the Los Angeles juvenile and criminal justice systems through individual client representation, policy advocacy, education of law students, research, and community engagement.

Outside of Loyola Law School, Buckingham has been a visiting clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and has taught in the HLS Trial Advocacy Workshop for over a decade. In addition to teaching at Harvard and Loyola Law Schools, Buckingham has worked with the University of Southern California (USC) to create a Masters in Criminal Justice Program geared toward training the next generation of leaders in the fields of law enforcement, probation, and corrections. Buckingham has created and teaches a class on youthful offenders for USC.

Buckingham has longworked to increase educational opportunities for young people whose lives touch the criminal and juvenile justice system. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Buckingham taught high school at the Maya Angelou Charter School, a high school for children who have been justice-system involved. There, Buckingham taught classes and managed over 500 volunteers. Buckingham now serves on the board of the Center for Educational Excellence in

Alternative Settings (CEEAS), an organization dedicated to creating educational opportunities for young people during their incarceration and ensuring their smooth and successful transition back into the community after release.

Publications

Interviews

Testimony to U.S. Congress

Training Materials

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.