Prof. Colin Starger has begun a three-year term as associate dean for academic affairs, replacing Prof. Dionne Koller, who also served in the role for three years.
Starger is the founding director of the law school’s Legal Data & Design Clinic, and he also co-led the now-defunct Pretrial Justice Clinic, with Zina Makar. Makar recently rejoined the faculty and will teach criminal law. In recent years, Starger has taught Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Introduction to Lawyering Skills, Jurisprudence, and Coding for Lawyers, in addition to leading the clinics.
Before joining the law faculty in 2010, Starger served as an acting assistant professor of lawyering at New York University School of Law. He graduated in 2002 from Columbia University Law School, where he was a recipient of the Jane Marks Murphy Prize (for Clinical Excellence), and a graduation speaker for his J.D. class.
Following graduation, Starger clerked for Magistrate Judge Michael Dolinger in the Southern District of New York. From 2003 to 2007, he worked as a staff attorney at the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School. At the Innocence Project, Starger was lead counsel on four DNA exonerations, including one from Oklahoma’s death row.
Starger is the principal on the SCOTUS Mapping Project, a software-driven effort to map Supreme Court doctrine. He has been honored for his innovative work in law and technology, named in 2014’s “Fastcase 50” and as a 2020 American Bar Association “Legal Rebel.” He is a member of the New York and Maryland bars.