SCHOOL OF LAW

Robert C Owen

Clinical Professor

JD Harvard
MA University of Georgia
AB University of Georgia

Since 1989, Rob Owen has defended people facing the death penalty at every level of the state and federal court system, including arguing successfully at the United States Supreme Court (Tennard v. Dretke (2004), Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman (2007), and Brewer v. Quarterman (2007)). He has taught at the Law School continuously since 1998. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where he studied comparative literature, and Harvard Law School. He began his career as a lawyer with the nonprofit Texas Resource Center in Austin. After six years as a staff attorney there, he served for three years as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Seattle before returning to Texas. He co-directs the Capital Punishment Clinic, teaches traditional lecture courses on capital punishment, and leads a freshman seminar on the death penalty in the undergraduate Plan II Honors Program. He is a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Award in recognition of his work in representing death-sentenced prisoners. In 2008, he was the Law Week Faculty Honoree, chosen by students to recognize his having gone "above and beyond" on their behalf, and also received the Texas Law Fellowships Excellence in Public Interest award.