Professor Meredith Esser’s teaching and scholarship center on second look advocacy, sentencing law, and conditions of confinement. Her work has appeared in the Minnesota Law Review, the Fordham Law Review and the Iowa Law Review Online and has been featured on the widely read Sentencing Law & Policy blog. A frequent speaker on criminal justice reform, she regularly presents to legal practitioners and has been interviewed on the Public Defenseless podcast.

Before joining Boyd Law, Professor Esser was a faculty member at the University of Wyoming College of Law, where she directed the Defender Aid Clinic and supervised students in post-conviction and compassionate release matters.

Earlier in her career, Professor Esser served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender, representing clients in federal courts in Colorado, Wyoming, and before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. She began her legal practice at Arnold & Porter LLP, where she worked on major pro bono cases involving prison conditions and systemic reform in the criminal legal system.

Professor Esser clerked for Judge Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Judge Russel F. Canan, then Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division of the D.C. Superior Court. Her career reflects a sustained commitment to public defense, decarceration, and the pursuit of justice for incarcerated individuals.