Alison Siegler

Alison Siegler
EducationYale College (BA)
Yale Law School (JD)
OccupationLillian E. Kraemer Clinical Professor of Law at University of Chicago Law School

Alison Siegler is the Lillian E. Kraemer Clinical Professor in Public Interest Law at the University of Chicago Law School. She founded and directs the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic. Siegler writes about criminal procedure, pretrial detention, federal bail reform, and sentencing.

Education and career

Siegler graduated magna cum laude from Yale College with a degree in Humanities.[1] Siegler went on to attend Yale Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor and served as Executive Editor of the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities and Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal.[1] She clerked for Judge Robert Gettleman in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.[1] As of 2025 she is the Lillian E. Kraemer Clinical Professor in Public Interest Law.[2]

Following her clerkship, Siegler served as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center.[1] From 2002 to 2008, Siegler worked as a federal public defender in Chicago with the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois, practicing in both the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.[1]

In 2008, Siegler joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School, where she founded and directs the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic.[1]

Siegler is an elected member of the American Law Institute.[3] She was a member of Senator Dick Durbin’s Bipartisan Screening Committee for Federal Judges (2012).[4]

From 2014 to 2018, Siegler’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic led a systemic litigation challenge to several dozen sting operations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).[5] Working with federal public defenders and other attorneys, Siegler’s team argued in 43 Chicago cases that the ATF’s stings were racially discriminatory.[6] The allegation was heard in a simultaneous hearing by nine Illinois federal District Court judges.[7] In response, prosecutors offered plea deals and dropped charges against the clinic’s clients.[8][9] Siegler was given the Justice John Paul Stevens Award for Outstanding Public Service Work by the Seventh Circuit Bar Association for her work on the cases,[10] and her clinic received the Clinical Legal Education Association Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project in 2020.[11]

Siegler has also led the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic’s national advocacy against the federal pretrial detention crisis. In 2019, Siegler testified before the House Judiciary Committee about federal bail reform.[12] In 2020, she was invited to give a presentation to President Biden’s transition team about executive branch policies regarding federal bail.[13] In 2022, the clinic published a report that found federal judges had misapplied federal bail law for decades, improperly jailing and denying lawyers to many defendants.[14][15] Following the report, Siegler and her students publicly met with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin to discuss the report’s findings.[16] Siegler has published opinion pieces about federal jailing in The New York Times,[17] USA Today,[18] The Hill,[19] and the Chicago Tribune.[20]

Selected publications

  • End Mandatory Minimums, in Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration 77 (Lauren-Brooke Eisen ed., 2024). ISBN 9780231212168.[21]
  • Reforming the Federal Criminal System: Lessons from Litigation, 25 J. Gender, Race & Just. 99 (2022) (with Judith P. Miller and Erica K. Zunkel).[22]
  • Discovering Racial Discrimination by the Police, 115 Nw. U. L. Rev. 987 (2021) (with William Admussen).[23]
  • The Federal Judiciary’s Role in Drug Law Reform in an Era of Congressional Dysfunction, 18 Ohio State J. of Crim. L. 238 (2020) (with Erica K. Zunkel).[24]
  • Rethinking Federal Bail Advocacy to Change the Culture of Detention, The Champion 46 (July 2020) (with Erica Zunkel).[25]
  • “I Got the Shotgun, You Got the Briefcase”: Criminal Defense Ethics in The Wire, 2018 Univ. of Chi. Legal F. 209 (2018) (with Erica K. Zunkel).[26]
  • The Courts of Appeals’ Latest Anti-Booker Rebellion, 82 U. Chi. L. Rev. 201 (2015).[27]
  • “‘Death Is Different’ No Longer”: Graham v. Florida and the Future of Eighth Amendment Challenges to Noncapital Sentences, 2010 Sup. Ct. Rev. 327 (2011) (with Barry Sullivan).[28]
  • Disparities and Discretion in Fast-Track Sentencing, 21 Fed. Sent’g R. 299 (2009).[29]
  • Appendix: Sample Cross Examination, in Terence F. MacCarthy, MacCarthy on Cross Examination (2008).[30]
  • The Patriot Act’s Erosion of Constitutional Rights, 32 ABA Litig. 18 (Winter 2006).[31]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Alison Siegler". law.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago Law School. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  2. ^ "Alison Siegler | University of Chicago Law School". www.law.uchicago.edu. May 28, 2009. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
  3. ^ "Members Elected December 2021". ali.org. American Law Institute. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  4. ^ "Durbin Announces Another Bipartisan Screening Committee For Federal Judges In The Northern District" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: Office of Dick Durbin. Office of Dick Durbin. August 13, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  5. ^ Poser, Rachel (October 11, 2021). "Stash-House Stings Carry Real Penalties for Fake Crimes". Condé Nast, Advance Publications. The New Yorker. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  6. ^ Meisner, Jason; Sweeney, Annie (October 7, 2019). "Convicted in a controversial stash house sting operation, Leslie Mayfield is struggling to rebuild his life after prison". Tribune Publishing. Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  7. ^ Corley, Cheryl (December 15, 2017). "Court Decision Could Force Changes To ATF's Undercover Operations". National Public Radio. Morning Edition. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  8. ^ Meisner, Jason (May 31, 2019). "Under pressure by judges, prosecutors to offer plea deals in controversial drug stash house cases". Tribune Publishing. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  9. ^ Eckholm, Erik (January 30, 2015). "Prosecutor Drops Toughest Charges in Chicago Stings That Used Fake Drugs". New York Times Company. New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  10. ^ Beaupre Gillespie, Becky. "Siegler Honored for Work on Fake Stash House Cases". law.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago Law School. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  11. ^ "CLEA Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project". cleaweb.org. Clinical Legal Education Association. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  12. ^ "The Administration of Bail and Federal Courts: A Calle for Reform". congree.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  13. ^ "Fighting Unjust and Unlawful Pretrial Detention and Bail in the Federal Criminal System". law.uchicago.edu. The University of Chicago Law School. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  14. ^ Siegler, Alison (October 2022). Freedom Denied: How the Culture of Detention Created a Federal Jailing Crisis (Report). The University of Chicago Law School Federal Criminal Justice Clinic. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  15. ^ Abdollah, Tami (December 7, 2022). "Study: Federal magistrates, prosecutors misunderstand bail law, jailing people who should go free". Gannett. USA Today. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  16. ^ "Durbin Meets with University of Chicago Federal Criminal Justice Clinic" (Press release). Chicago: U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. U.S. Senate. May 8, 2023. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  17. ^ Siegler, Alison; Harris, Kate (February 24, 2021). "How Did the 'Worst of the Worst' Become 3 Out of 4?". New York Times Company. The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  18. ^ Siegler, Alison (November 2, 2023). "You have the right to have an attorney. Budget cuts in Congress mean you may not get one". Gannett. USA Today. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  19. ^ Siegler, Alison; Buskey, Brandon (March 17, 2023). "The law of unintended consequences: How federal judges may be driving up crime rates". Capitol Hill Publishing. The Hill. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  20. ^ Siegler, Alison; Zunkel, Erica (April 24, 2020). "Commentary: Don't let Chicago's federal jail become the next coronavirus hot spot". Tribune Publishing. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  21. ^ Siegler, Alison (April 2024). "Part II, Ch. 9: End Mandatory minimums". In Eisen, Lauren-Brooke (ed.). Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231212168.
  22. ^ Siegler, Alison; Miller, Judith P.; Zunkel, Erica K. (May 6, 2022). "Reforming the Federal Criminal System: Lessons from Litigation". Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 25 (1): 100–204. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  23. ^ Siegler, Alison; Admussen, William (January 17, 2021). "Discovering Racial Discrimination by the Police". Northwestern University Law Review. 115 (4): 998–1054. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  24. ^ Siegler, Alison; Zunkel, Erica (May 29, 2020). "The Federal Judiciary's Role in Drug Law Reform in an Era of The Federal Judiciary's Role in Drug Law Reform in an Era of Congressional Dysfunction Congressional Dysfunction" (PDF). Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. 18 (1): 283–328. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  25. ^ Siegler, Alison; Zunkel, Erica (May 17, 2020). "Rethinking Federal Bail Advocacy to Change the Culture of Detention". The Champion (Journal of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers): 1–23.
  26. ^ Siegler, Alison; Zunkel, Erica (2019). ""I Got the Shotgun, You Got the Briefcase": Criminal Defense Ethics in The Wire". The University of Chicago Legal Forum. 2019: 209–237. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  27. ^ Siegler, Alison (2015). "Rebellion: The Courts of Appeals' Latest Anti-Booker Backlash". University of Chicago Law Review. 201: 201–221. Archived from the original on November 28, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  28. ^ Siegler, Alison; Sullivan, Barry (January 27, 2011). "'Death is Different' No Longer: Graham v. Florida and the Future of Eighth Amendment Challenges to Noncapital Sentences". Supreme Court Review. 2011: 327–380. Archived from the original on November 28, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  29. ^ Siegler, Alison (June 2009). "Disparities and Discretion in Fast-Track Sentencing". Federal Sentencing Reporter. 21 (5): 299–310. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  30. ^ Siegler, Alison (August 1, 2007). "Appendix: Sample Cross Examination". In MacCarthy, Terence (ed.). MacCarthy on Cross Examination. American Bar Association. ISBN 9781614383383.
  31. ^ Siegler, Alison (2006). "The Patriot Act's Erosion of Constitutional Rights". FREEDOM. 32 (2): 18–72. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
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