J.D., Yale Law School, 1999
B.A., University of Virginia, 1996
Fiona Doherty is Deputy Dean for Experiential Education and Clinical Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She founded the Criminal Justice Clinic, which defends indigent clients accused of felony and misdemeanor offenses in New Haven. She also teaches courses in Criminal Law and Sentencing. Professor Doherty is a recipient of the Yale Provost’s Teaching Prize.
From 2005 to 2011, Professor Doherty was an Assistant Federal Defender in the Southern District of New York. Before that, she was Senior Counsel at Human Rights First in New York City, working to ensure that U.S. anti-terrorism measures incorporate human rights protections.
Professor Doherty received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1999 and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She then received a Bernstein Fellowship to work in Northern Ireland, where she focused on cases involving the targeting of defense lawyers during the conflict.
Professor Doherty is the first female graduate of the law school to serve on its tenured clinical faculty. In 2022, she received the Yale Law Women Faculty Excellence Award. Her current scholarship focuses on supervised release, probation, and parole.
Faculty, students, and alumni recently gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of clinical education and the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School.
On March 22, 2019, the Samuel Jacobs Criminal Justice Clinic (CJC) submitted testimony to the Connecticut General Assembly in support of Senate Bill 880, “An Act Increasing Fairness and Transparency in the Criminal Justice System.” CJC’s testimony supports the bill’s parole revocation provisions, which establish data collection and rep
Fiona Doherty, “Breach of Trust” and U.S. v. Haymond, 34 Fed. Sent’g Rep. 274 (2022).
Fiona Doherty, The Case for Moving Beyond Probation and How To Do It, The Appeal (2021).
Fiona Doherty, Testing Periods and Outcome Determination in Criminal Cases, 103 Minn. L. Rev. 1699 (2019).
Fiona Doherty, Obey All Laws and Be Good: Probation and the Meaning of Recidivism, 104 Geo. L. J. 291 (2016).
Fiona Doherty, Indeterminate Sentencing Returns: The Invention of Supervised Release, 88 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 958 (2013).
Samuel Jacobs Criminal Justice Clinic, Parole Revocation in Connecticut: Opportunities to Reduce Incarceration (2017).
