Kate Skolnick, Seasoned Public Defender and Criminal Law Scholar, to Join Haub Law as Assistant Professor

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The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is pleased to announce that Kate Skolnick, an accomplished public defender and respected criminal law scholar, will join the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Law beginning in Fall 2025. Professor Skolnick will teach courses in criminal law and criminal procedure, along with an advanced criminal law seminar.

Prior to joining Haub Law, Professor Skolnick served as an Acting Assistant Professor in the Lawyering Program at New York University School of Law, teaching first-year lawyering as well as a reading group on prison and police abolition. For nearly a decade and a half before entering academia full-time, Professor Skolnick was a post-conviction public defender at the Center for Appellate Litigation ("CAL"), where she also taught in the Appellate Criminal Defense Clinic at Cornell Law School. At CAL, she litigated a range of cases, from direct appeals, to collateral attacks on convictions in state and federal court, to resentencing petitions, to Sex Offender Registration Act hearings. For her work in attempting to implement the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, a pioneering sentencing reform that has since expanded to other jurisdictions, she received the 2022 Award for Outstanding Achievements in Promoting Standards of Excellence in Mandated Representation from the New York State Bar Association.

“Professor Skolnick comes to Haub Law with an extensive and accomplished background in criminal law,” said Dean Horace E. Anderson, Jr. “With her background as a public defender, coupled with her experience as a professor, she brings a wealth of real-world experience and academic knowledge with her. At Haub Law, we believe in connecting classroom learning with practical, real-world impact and Professor Skolnick’s background and experience will do exactly that. The Haub Law community is eager to welcome Professor Skolnick.”

Before joining CAL full-time, Professor Skolnick worked as a research scholar at the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, where she examined the institutional impact of programs supporting students moving from incarceration into post-secondary education. Professor Skolnick’s research and teaching focus on a critical examination of the criminal legal system, and in particular on unwinding mass incarceration while promoting the full participation in society of those affected by the carceral system. Her writing has appeared in the N.Y.U. Law Review.

Haub Law provides a robust criminal law curriculum, including prosecution externships, a criminal defense clinic, and several upper-level courses. Professor Skolnick shared her excitement about joining Haub Law, noting “Haub Law offers an incredible range of criminal law courses and experiential opportunities. I look forward to contributing to this strong foundation and working with students who are passionate about justice and reform. You can sense the close connections among faculty, staff, and students alike at Haub Law and I am excited to join the community.”

Professor Skolnick received her BA from Stanford University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa; and her JD from Columbia Law School, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of The Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual, a self-help litigation resource for incarcerated persons. At Columbia, she received Kent and Stone Scholar designations and a Lowenstein Fellowship to pursue public interest work upon completing her degree.