Christopher Northrop
Clinical Professor of Law
BA, Grinnell College
JD, University of North Carolina School of Law
Office Phone: (207) 780-4370
christopher.northrop@maine.edu
Clinical Professor Christopher Northrop joined the faculty in 2006 as a visiting clinical professor at the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, where he launched the Juvenile Justice Clinic. This clinical program allows students to combine direct representation of juveniles with ongoing, system-wide policy work. His students frequently partner with national advocacy organizations, state agencies and child focused non-profits to advance their juvenile justice policy objectives. In 2008 Professor Northrop presented on the development of this innovative model at the New England Clinicians Workshop at Harvard Law School and at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Conference on Clinical Education in Tucson, Arizona. He is the 2009 recipient of the USM Faculty Senate award for excellence in teaching.
Prior to joining the Law School faculty, Professor Northrop spent many years in private practice concentrating on juvenile defense work. He has been involved with the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) since its inception, and has served as a consultant for NJDC assessments of statewide juvenile defender systems in Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina, Maine, Nebraska, West Virginia and Mississippi. He has also contributed to studies on juvenile justice such as The Children Left Behind (American Bar Association, 2001), Troubled Kids, Troubled Courts (New England Juvenile Defender Center, 2003) and Illinois: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings (NJDC, 2007).
Professor Northrop was one of the founders of the New England Juvenile Defender Center, and he currently serves as president of their board of directors. In June 2009, the offices of the New England Juvenile Defender Center relocated to the University of Maine School of Law.
