Maitreya Badami, JD

Maitreya Badami joined the Political Science and Criminal Justice Department in fall 2017 after a 23-year career in the practice of criminal law at the trial, appellate, and post-conviction levels. From 2010-2017, she taught and practiced full time with the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP), a clinical educational program at Santa Clara University School of Law. NCIP represents California state prisoners with claims of actual innocence in habeas corpus and other post-conviction proceedings. Prior to joining the Santa Clara Law faculty, she practiced in the Bay Area, serving as a Deputy Public Defender in Contra Costa County, and then as a member of the Indigent Defense Panels for San Francisco Superior Court, the First District Appellate Project, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She has done research and extensive policy advocacy in relation to the role of eyewitness misidentification in wrongful convictions.

Maitreya obtained her BA in Political Science from the University of Georgia, where she acquired a taste for SEC football and indie rock music. From there, she returned to her home state to attend law school at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, from which she obtained her J.D. in 1994.

At Chico State, she serves as a Supervising Attorney at the Community Legal Information Center (CLIC), and in spring 2019, she will become director of the Moot Court program, upon the retirement of its founding professor.