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Jonathon Booth

Jonathon Booth is a historian of democracy, race, law, and policing in the United States. He teaches courses including Criminal Law, American Legal History, and Law and History of Policing.

Booth’s research reaches from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and focuses on the practical impact of law and its enforcement—in other words, how the law tangibly affects Americans.

His most recent article, "The Cycle of Delegitimization: Lessons From Dred Scott on the Relationship Between the Supreme Court and the Nation", which appears in the UC Law Constitutional Quarterly, demonstrates that the Dred Scott decision met immediately with strong opposition from Northerners that delegitimized the Supreme Court and made the decision itself a dead letter.

Booth previously was the legal history fellow at the Harvard History Design Studio and clerked for the Hon. Barrington D. Parker on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the Hon. Kevin McNulty on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. He received his PhD in history from Harvard University in 2021 and his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2019. He received his BA in history and economics, joint honors, from McGill University.

Laura Dolbow

Laura Dolbow joined Colorado Law as associate professor of law from Penn Carey Law, where she served as a Sharswood Fellow. Dolbow researches the intersection of patent law, health law, and administrative law.

Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Administrative Law Review. Her law school note won a 2018 Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing and was cited by the Patent Office in a final rule regarding claim construction standards in post-grant review proceedings. Her article, "Agency Adherence to Legislative History", won the 2017 Gellhorn-Sargentich Law Student Essay Competition and the Weldon B. White Prize.

Prior to Penn Carey Law, Dolbow practiced in the appellate and patent litigation groups at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. She clerked for Judge Judith Rogers on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Timothy Dyk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She received her JD and BA from Vanderbilt University, where she won the Founder’s Medal for her law school class and served as senior articles editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Before law school, she taught middle school math through Teach for America in Nashville, Tennessee.

Vanessa Racehorse

Vanessa Racehorse joined the Colorado Law faculty as an associate professor of law and a core faculty member of the American Indian Law Program. Her teaching and scholarship focus on American Indian and Indigenous Peoples law, human rights, international law, and environmental justice. Racehorse is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and is a descendant of the Cherokee Nation and Shoshone-Paiute Tribes.

Racehorse previously taught at the University of New Mexico School of Law and the University of San Diego School of Law. Prior to entering academia, she served as a deputy attorney general for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, an attorney for the California Native American Heritage Commission, and an associate attorney at Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry, LLP, a top-ranked national law firm dedicated to representing Native American interests.

Racehorse has a BA from the University of Denver, an LLM in international criminal law from the University of Amsterdam, and a JD from Columbia Law School, where she was a recipient of the Parker School Recognition of Achievement in International and Comparative Law, president of the Columbia Native American Law Students Association, and Bluebook Editor for the Columbia Law Review.

Samantha Funk

After serving as a visiting legal writing assistant professor at Colorado Law, Samantha (Sam) Funk has joined Colorado Law’s permanent legal writing faculty.

Prior to teaching, Funk practiced commercial litigation for seven years, where she represented clients at the trial and appellate levels in state and federal court Her practice involved a broad range of civil matters, including class actions and franchise or contract disputes. After working as a civil litigator, Funk conducted civil rights and Title IX investigations at the University of Washington. She has been committed to pro bono work throughout her legal career, representing clients seeking asylum, arguing for protective orders in criminal cases, and researchingstate statutes for a reproductive justice organization.

Funk graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was an articles editor for the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law and externed at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to law school, she worked for a reproductive rights organization in Guatemala before returning home and teaching English classes to Spanish speakers.

Cara Shaffer

Cara Shaffer joined Colorado Law’s permanent legal writing faculty from the South Texas College of Law Houston, where she served as director of the Legal Writing Center. She earned her JD from the University of Texas School of Law and previously worked as a litigation associate at Bowman and Brooke LLP. Her experience includes internships and clerkships at the Third Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, and the Harris County Attorney’s Office. Shaffer has diverse experience teaching writing and oral advocacy, including three years coaching the University of Texas Undergraduate Mock Trial team.