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Katharine Tinto

Clinical Professor of Law

Director, Criminal Justice Clinic

Courtesy Faculty Appointment, Dept. of Criminology, Law & Society

Katharine Tinto

Expertise:

Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Defense, Crimmigration, Evidence

Background:

Professor Tinto teaches, practices, and researches in the areas of criminal law, criminal justice, the intersection of criminal law and immigration law, and indigent criminal defense. Her interests and experience also include federal compassionate release, clemency, policing reform, and reentry services. Before joining UCI Law in July 2016, Professor Tinto taught at Cardozo School of Law and NYU School of Law.

Prior to entering academia, Professor Tinto worked for over seven years as a public defender in Los Angeles County and prior to law school she was the founder of a family violence prevention program in the East Palo Alto Police Department. Professor Tinto attended NYU School of Law where she was a Root Tilden Kern Scholar. After graduating, she clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

, Life Sentencing Practicum

(Log in to view full course descriptions in the UCI Law Course Catalog)

  • Eda K. Tinto, The California Gang Database: Once in, Can You Ever Get Out?, The Verdict (Oct. 2020).
  • Katie Tinto, The Dangers of Police-Created Crime, The Justice Collaborative Institute (Sept. 29, 2020).
  • Eda K. Tinto, Reentry Services for the Removed, 70 Fla. L. Rev. F. 124 (2019) (invited response essay).
  • Eda K. Tinto, Policing the Immigrant Identity, 68 Fla. L. Rev.  (2016).
    • Selected as a "Must Read" by Getting Scholarship into Court Project, NACDL
  • Eda K. Tinto, Finding Rights Among the Wreckage, Crim. Justice Ethics (2016)(book review).
  • Katharine Tinto, Fighting the Stash House Sting, The Champion (NACDL 2014).
  • Andrew E. Taslitz, Lenese C. Herbert, Eda Katharine Tinto, SKILLS & VALUES: CRIMINAL LAW (2014).
  • Eda K. Tinto, Undercover Policing, Overstated Culpability, 34 Cardozo L. Rev. 1401 (2013).
  • March 28, 2025
    Panel presenter on misdemeanors, “Forever Criminalized?: How Collateral Consequences Advance Disparities in Criminal Justice,” Hofstra Law Review Volume 53 Symposium
  • October 23, 2023:
    Speaker, Record Expungement, Project Kinship Reentry Conference
  • September 21, 2023:
    Speaker, Disrupting Deportation – How to Effectively Vacate your Noncitizens Criminal Convictions for Immigration Purposes, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Webinar
  • September 21, 2023:
    Speaker, Rights and Remedies, Project Rebound, Cal State Fullerton
  • March 31, 2023:
    Panelist, University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class Symposia, Decarceration and the Role of Law School Clinics