Anne Traum

Professor Traum joined the Boyd School of Law in 2008 after a distinguished career as public service litigator. Her research focuses on important aspects of judicial review and access to the courts, including, the role of courts in redressing the problem of mass incarceration, reviewing immigration matters, and safeguarding access to habeas corpus relief. She teaches Criminal Procedure Investigation, Criminal Procedure Adjudication and directs the Appellate Clinic, which she founded in 2009.

After graduation from law school, Professor Traum clerked for Judge Stanwood R. Duval in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She then joined the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. From 2000 to 2002 she served as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas where she represented federal agencies in litigation involving federal lands, natural resources and federal tort claims. From 2002 to 2008, Professor Traum was an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Las Vegas, representing indigent defendants on direct appeal from federal convictions and state prisoners pursuing habeas relief in federal court. She has argued more than 30 cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Appellate Clinic represents individuals in civil and criminal appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Nevada Supreme Court. In its inaugural year the Appellate Clinic won a landmark case, Dent v. Holder, 627 F.3d 365 (9th Cir. 2010), which established a new rule that all persons in removal proceedings have a right to a copy of their alien file. This important ruling will potentially impact tens of thousands of removal cases within the Ninth Circuit. Based on the creative and innovative work in Dent, Professor Traum and the Appellate Clinic have gained national attention. This complex immigration case was briefed and orally argued to the three-judge panel by third-year law students under Professor Traum’s supervision. The Appellate Clinic in 2011 won a family law case, Wood v. Wood, Nev 53777, in the Nevada Supreme Court. The court in Wood reversed the family court’s award of primary custody to the mother of a minor child for purposes of relocating out of state.

Professor Traum was selected in 2009 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to be one of 22 inaugural Appellate Lawyer Representatives to the court. As part of her responsibilities, Professor Traum attends periodic court meetings, including the annual circuit-wide judicial conference, and chairs the Pro Bono Subcommittee, which developed an appellate lawyer mentoring project for lawyers handling immigration cases. She also is a liaison to the court for local appellate attorneys.