Assistant Legal Methods Professor
B.A., Georgetown University
J.D., Duquesne University
L.L.M., Georgetown University
E-mail:
sjwilliams@widener.eduPhone: 717.541.1992
Starla J. Williams is Professor of Legal Methods at Widener University School of Law - Harrisburg campus. Professor Williams earned a master of laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992 and a juris doctorate degree from Duquesne University School of Law in 1990. She has been admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1991.
Professor Williams has served twice as judicial clerk for the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania and has served as judicial clerk for the United States District Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania. While in private practice, Williams represented parents in dependency hearings before the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County – Family Division. Thereafter, she assumed the role of Executive Vice President for Child and Family Services in a statewide private non-profit agency servicing over 1300 children and youth in foster care.
Professor Williams is active in professional and civic organizations. She is Secretary of the Executive Council of the Minority Bar Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, former Chair of the Diversity Initiatives Committee of the Legal Writing Institute, and a member of the Diversity Committee of the Association of American Law Schools - Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research. She currently serves as Chair of the Advocacy Task Force for the Pennsylvania Service Connect Team in Harrisburg.
Professor Williams has presented at national teaching, practice, and legal scholarship conferences. She often addresses community groups and professional organizations on important topics, including leadership development, diversity in the legal academy and racial equity in child welfare.
Professor Williams is faculty advisor to the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), academic advisor to first-year law students, and director of Jurist Academy on the Harrisburg Campus.
Selected Recent Publications Articles - & Anna P. Hemingway, Ann Fruth, and Jennifer Lear, Thurgood Marshall: The Writer, 47 Willamette L. Rev. 211 (2011).
- A Values Based Pedagogy for the Legal Academy in the Post-Racial Era, ______, The Journal of Gender, Race and Justice (forthcoming)
- Reforming Mandated Reporting Laws After Sandusky (forthcoming)