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).
  • 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
  • August 17 & 24, 2022:
    Panelist, Virtual Training Session on "Crimmigration," The Office of the State Public Defender’s Indigent Defense Improvement Division 
  • March 26, 2021:
    Panelist, Police Reform: From Prisons to the Streets, How Far We Have Come and How Far We Still Have to Go, Virtual Indiana Law Review Symposium “No Justice, No Peace: Finding Justice in American Policing,” Online
  • March 24, 2021:
    Panelist, UC Campus Safety Symposium – Part 2: Reimagining Campus Safety & Dimensions of Change, Online
  • Feb. 18, 2021:
    Panelist, Police Brutality, Diversity and Social Justice Forum Symposium, Chapman University Fowler School of Law, Online
  • July 24, 2020
    Panelist, Criminal Justice Advocacy, Project Kinship 2020 Trauma & Recovery Certificate Program
  • Oct. 28, 2019
    Panelist, Current Issues in the Criminal Justice System, Prison Education Club, UCI, Irvine, CA
  • April 16, 2020
    Speaker, Restorative Justice and Alternatives to Incarceration, Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
  • Dec. 6, 2019
    Speaker, The Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions, Neighborhood Legal Services of LA County, Los Angeles, CA
  • Dec. 6, 2018
    Trainer/Presenter, Motions to Vacate: The What, Where, When, and Hows of California Post-Conviction Relief, Immigration Legal Resource Center, Webinar 
  • Oct. 10, 2018
    Trainer/Presenter, Never Say Die: Post-Conviction Relief in Removal Proceedings, Removal Defense Project, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CA
  • Sept. 20, 2018
    Panelist, Excessive Force and Police Brutality from the Minority Perspective, Thurgood Marshall Bar Association, Orange, CA
  • Sept. 18, 2018
    Presenter, Criminal Defense and the Justice System, UC Irvine History Project, Irvine, CA
  • May 1, 2016
    Panelist, “Out of the Ivory Tower and into the Community!” Academic Writing for Social Justice, concurrent session, AALS Clinical Conference, Baltimore, MD
  • Dec. 4, 2014
    Moderator, “Broken Windows, Shattered Lives,” Symposium: Misdemeanor Practice in the Era of Broken Windows and Saturation Policing, Cardozo School of Law, New York, NY
  • Sept. 27, 2014
    “Policing the Immigrant Identity,” Clinical Law Review Writers’ Workshop, NYU School of Law, New York, NY