Photo of Alafair  Burke

Alafair Burke

Visiting Professor of Law
Education
B.A., Reed College
J.D., Stanford Law School

Biography

Professor Alafair Burke joins Brooklyn Law School for the 2014-15 school year from Hofstra Law School, where she is a Professor of Law. She teaches criminal law, focusing on the intersection of criminal law and procedure, policing, and prosecutorial policies. She has written extensively about prosecutorial decision making, community policing and non-punitive responses to crime problems, and law’s treatment of domestic violence, both in punishing perpetrators and survivors. Professor Burke’s articles have been published in the Michigan Law Review, George Washington Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Washington Law Review, and William and Mary Law Review, among many other journals.

Before joining the faculty at Hofstra Law School in 2001, Professor Burke served as a deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, handling criminal cases against domestic violence offenders and innovating neighborhood-based prosecution methods. She also clerked for Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She graduated from Stanford Law School, where was an articles editor of the Stanford Law and Public Policy Journal, a member of the Stanford Journal of International Law, and elected to Order of the Coif.
 
In addition to teaching, Professor Burke is a frequent legal and trial commentator for various television and radio programs. She is also the author of nine bestselling crime novels.