Laurel Simmons
Clinical Assistant Professor
Academic Initiatives / Bar Prep
J.D., Stanford Law School
B.A., Wake Forest University
Laurel Simmons teaches foreign-trained LL.M. students, 1Ls, and graduating 3Ls. Professor Simmons is also a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. Professor Simmons joined the faculty at the University of Houston Law Center after teaching Fundamentals of U.S. Law, Legal Research & Writing, and the Capstone Writing Project at U.C. Berkeley School of Law, and Critical Studies at U.C. Hastings College of the Law. Professor Simmons also was the principal of her own criminal defense firm in the Bay Area, with a state and federal practice of both trial and appellate work. Prior to starting her own firm, she worked at WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley and clerked for Chief Judge Julie E. Carnes on the United States District Court (N.D. Ga.). While in law school, she participated in Stanford’s Capital Defense Clinic on San Quentin’s Death Row and the East Palo Alto Community Law Clinic, and she helped design and found Stanford’s Three Strikes Project. Prior to law school, Professor Simmons taught high school English in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School (with pro bono honors) and Wake Forest University (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa).
