Peter A. Joy
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs; Henry Hitchcock Professor of Law; Director, Criminal Justice Clinic
Office
Anheuser-Busch Hall
Room 584
Featured Scholarship
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Adam Chilton, Peter Joy, Kyle Rozema & James Thomas, Improving the Signal Quality of Grades, 40 J.L. Econ. & Org. 820 (2024).
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Peter Joy & Robert Kuehn, Measuring the Impacts of Experiential Legal Education, 73 J. Legal Educ. 683 (2025).
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Renee Knake Jefferson, Russell G. Pearce, Bruce A. Green, Peter A. Joy, Sung Hui Kim, M. Ellen Murphy, Laurel Terry, Lonnie T. Brown & Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen, Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach (5th ed. West. 2023)
About Peter A. Joy
Professor Peter A. Joy is well known for his work in legal ethics, clinical legal education, criminal justice, and trial practice. As director of the Criminal Justice Clinic, he supervises student-lawyers who provide direct legal representation to clients and work with experienced public defenders on criminal matters. Professor Joy has written extensively and presented nationally and internationally on legal ethics, lawyer and judicial professionalism, clinical legal education, and access to justice issues. He served as Vice Dean from 2010 to 2012, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs 2018-2020, and was the inaugural director of the law school’s Trial & Advocacy Program from 2002 to 2006. Professor Joy is a recipient of the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Pincus Award for outstanding contribution to clinical legal education. He is currently on the Board of Editors for the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, and he is a columnist for the American Bar Association (ABA) quarterly publication Criminal Justice. He is a former member of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Accreditation Committee and Standards Review Committee; a former chair of the AALS Professional Responsibility Section; former chair of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education; former board member of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT); former president of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA); and former member of the Board of Editors of the Clinical Law Review from 2005-2011. Before becoming a law professor, he was of counsel at Meckler & Meckler in Cleveland, Ohio, and he started his legal career as National Co-Director for the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council (LSCRRC) in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been recognized by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell as an AV Preeminent Rated Lawyer for more than 40 years.
Education
- A.B., Youngstown State University, 1974
- J.D., Case Western Reserve University, 1977
Courses
- Legal Profession
- Criminal Justice Clinic
- Trial Practice & Procedure
- Comparative Legal Ethics (seminar)
Areas of Expertise
- Legal Ethics
- Criminal Justice
- Clinical Legal Education & Experiential Education
- Trial Practice & Procedure
- Legal Education
Scholarship
- Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach (3d & 4th eds.), West Publishing 2017 & 2020, co-author
- Australian Clinical Legal Education, ANU Press 2017, co-author
- Do No Wrong: Ethics For Prosecutors and Defenders, ABA Publishing 2009, co-author
- Clinical Legal Education for This Millennium: The Third Wave (Miche & Osaka trans.), 2005, co-author, Japanese translation
- “Competency of Counsel: Mitigation and National Standards of Practice,” in Tell The Client’s Story: Mitigation in Criminal and Death Penalty Cases (Monahan & Clark, eds.) ABA Publishing 43, 2017, co-author
- “Ethics: Criminal Practice and the Media,” in Media Coverage in Criminal Justice Cases (Taslitz ed.) ABA Publishing 97, 2013, co-author
- “Judges’ Misuse of Contempt in Criminal Cases and Limits of Advocacy,” 50 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 907 (2019)
- “Special Counsel Investigations and Legal Ethics: The Role of Secret Taping,” 57 Duquesne Law Review 252 (2019)
- “Challenges to Legal Education, Clinical Legal Education, and Clinical Scholarship, 26 Clinical Law Review 237 (2019)
- “The Great Recession and United States Legal Education,” 52 Waseda Comparative Law Review 93 (Yoshiaki Haraguchi trans. 2019) (Japanese language)
- “Sentencing Reform: Fixing Root Problems, 87 University of Missouri Kansas City Law Review 97 (2018) (co-author)
- “The Uneasy History of Experiential Education in U.S. Law Schools,” 122 Dickinson Law Review 551 (2018)
- “A Judge’s Duty to Do Justice: Ensuring the Accused’s Right to the Effective Assistance of Counsel,” 46 Hofstra Law Review 139 (2017)
- “‘What Do I Do with the Porn on My Computer?’: How a Lawyer Should Counsel Clients about Physical Evidence,” 54 American Criminal Law Review 751 (2017) (co-author)
- “ABA Standard 405(c): Two Steps Forward and One Step Back for Legal Education,” 66 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 606 (2017)
- “Race Matters in Jury Selection,” 109 Northwestern University Law Review Online 180 (2015)
- “Unequal Assistance of Counsel,” 24 Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy 518 (2015)
- “Systemic Barriers to Effective Assistance of Counsel in Plea Bargaining“, 99 Iowa Law Review 2103 (2014) (co-author)
- “Law Schools and the Legal Profession: A Way Forward,” 46 Akron Law Review 177 (2014)
- “Prosecutors’ Disclosure Obligations in the U.S.,” 42 Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics 51 (2014) (co-author)
- “Why Lawyers Should Assess Lawyers’ Ethics,” 15 Legal Ethics 405 (2012)
- “The Cost of Clinical Legal Education,” 32 Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice 309 (2012)
- “Rationing Justice by Rationing Lawyers,” 37 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 205 (2011)
- “Government Interference in Law School Clinics and Access to Justice: When Is There a Legal Remedy?, 61 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1087 (2011)
- “Ensuring the Ethical Representation of Clients in the Face of Excessive Caseloads, 75 Missouri Law Review 771 (2010)
- “‘Kneecapping’ Academic Freedom,” 69 Academe 8 (2010) (co-author)
- “Constructing Systemic Safeguards Against Informant Perjury,” 7 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 67 (2010)
Media
Activity & Affiliations
- Columnist, ABA Criminal Justice, 2001-present
- Board of Editors, International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, 2015-present
- ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Publications Committee, 2015-present
- ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Standards Review Committee, 2014-18
- ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Foreign Programs Committee, 2014-16
- ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Accreditation Committee, 2008-14
- Board of Editors, Clinical Law Review, 2005-11
- AALS Professional Responsibility Section Chair, 2011, Executive Committee, 2008-12
- AALS Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, 2005-2008; 2009-2010
- AALS Clinical Section Chair, 1997, Executive Committee, 1994-98
Honors & Awards
- Israel Treiman Research Fellow, 2018-19 & 2001-02, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law
- Campbell Visiting Fellowship, May 2016, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Visiting Scholar, 2012 & 2013, Hitotsubashi University Law School, Kunitachi, Japan
- Visiting Professor of Research, 2009-15, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
- AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education Pincus Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Legal Education, 2001
- AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education Special Recognition, 1999