Biography
Lauren Sudeall joined the Vanderbilt Law faculty in 2023 and serves as director of the Vanderbilt Access to Justice (AtJ) Initiative. Her research focuses on access to the courts, both civil and criminal, and how lower-income individuals engage with the legal system, either with a lawyer or on their own. Her earlier work has also included the relationship between rights and identity and the intersection of constitutional law and criminal procedure. Sudeall’s scholarship has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, Harvard Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, UCLA Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum, among other publications.
Before joining the academy, Sudeall clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court of the United States. She then worked at the Southern Center for Human Rights--first as a Soros Justice Fellow and later as a staff attorney--where she represented indigent capital clients in Alabama and Georgia and litigated civil claims regarding the right to counsel.
Sudeall is a member of the American Law Institute and currently serves as an Associate Reporter for Principles of the Law, High-Volume Civil Adjudication. She has also served on the Southern Center’s board of directors, the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid & Indigent Defendants, the Indigent Defense Committee of the State Bar of Georgia, and as chair of the AALS Section on Constitutional Law.
Sudeall graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she served as treasurer of the Harvard Law Review, and received her B.A. with distinction from Yale University.
Programs
Education
J.D., Harvard Law School
B.A., Yale University
Publications
Creating a People-First Court Data Framework
Creating a People-First Court Data Framework, 58 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 731 (2023) (with Charlotte S. Alexander)
FULL TEXT: SSRNDisaster Discordance: Local Court Implementation of State and Federal Eviction Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Disaster Discordance: Local Court Implementation of State and Federal Eviction Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 30 Geo. J. on Poverty L. & Pol’y 545 (2023) (with Elora L. Raymond and Philip M.E. Garboden)
FULL TEXT: SSRNDelegalization
Delegalization, 75 Stan. L. Rev. Online 116 (2023) (part of Stanford Law Review Access to Justice symposium)
FULL TEXT: SSRNRethinking the Civil-Criminal Distinction
Rethinking the Civil-Criminal Distinction (book chapter), in Transforming Criminal Justice: An Evidence-Based Agenda for Reform (NYU Press, 2022)
FULL TEXT: SSRNRacial Capitalism in the Civil Courts
Racial Capitalism in the Civil Courts, 122 Colum. L. Rev. 1243 (2022) (with Tonya L. Brito, Kathryn A. Sabbeth and Jessica K. Steinberg)
FULL TEXT: SSRNThe Overreach of Limits on “Legal Advice"
The Overreach of Limits on “Legal Advice,” 131 Yale L. J. Forum 637 (2022)
FULL TEXT: SSRNPraxis and Paradox: Inside the Black Box of Eviction Court
Praxis and Paradox: Inside the Black Box of Eviction Court, 74 Vand. L. Rev. 1365 (2021) (with Daniel Pasciuti)
FULL TEXT: SSRNBoots and Bail on the Ground: Assessing the Implementation of Misdemeanor Bail Reforms in Georgia
Boots and Bail on the Ground: Assessing the Implementation of Misdemeanor Bail Reforms in Georgia, 54 Ga. L. Rev. 1235 (2020) (with Andrea Woods, Sandra G. Mayson, Guthrie Armstrong, and Anthony Potts)
FULL TEXT: SSRNIntegrating the Access to Justice Movement
Integrating the Access to Justice Movement, 87 Fordham L. Rev. Online 172 (2019)
FULL TEXT: SSRNUnfamiliar Justice: Indigent Criminal Defendants’ Experiences with Civil Legal Needs
Unfamiliar Justice: Indigent Criminal Defendants’ Experiences with Civil Legal Needs, 52 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 2105 (2019) (with Ruth Richardson)
FULL TEXT: SSRNLegal Deserts: A Multi-State Perspective on Rural Access to Justice
Legal Deserts: A Multi-State Perspective on Rural Access to Justice, 13 Harv. L. & Pol’y Rev. 15 (2018) (with Lisa R. Pruitt, Danielle M. Conway, Michele Statz, Hannah Haksgaard, and Amanda L. Kool)
FULL TEXT: SSRNPublic Defense Litigation: An Overview
Public Defense Litigation: An Overview, 51 Ind. L. Rev. 89 (2018)
FULL TEXT: SSRNAn Empirical Assessment of Georgia’s Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Standard to Determine Intellectual Disability in Capital Cases
An Empirical Assessment of Georgia’s Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Standard to Determine Intellectual Disability in Capital Cases, 33 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 553 (2017)
FULL TEXT: SSRNProportionality Skepticism in a Red State
Proportionality Skepticism in a Red State, 130 Harv. L. Rev. F. 276 (2017)
FULL TEXT: SSRNKeeping Gideon’s Promise: Using Equal Protection to Address the Denial of Counsel in Misdemeanor Cases
Keeping Gideon’s Promise: Using Equal Protection to Address the Denial of Counsel in Misdemeanor Cases, 85 Fordham L. Rev. 2299 (2017) (with Brandon Buskey)
FULL TEXT: SSRNThe Free Exercise of Religious Identity
The Free Exercise of Religious Identity, 64 UCLA L. Rev. 54 (2017)
FULL TEXT: SSRNIdentity as Proxy
Identity as Proxy, 115 Colum. L. Rev. 1605 (2015)
FULL TEXT: SSRNFunctionally Suspect: Reconceptualizing “Race” as a Suspect Classification
Functionally Suspect: Reconceptualizing “Race” as a Suspect Classification, 20 Mich. J. Race & L. 255 (2015)
FULL TEXT: SSRNUndoing Race? Reconciling Multiracial Identity with Equal Protection
Undoing Race? Reconciling Multiracial Identity with Equal Protection, 102 Calif. L. Rev. 1243 (2014)
FULL TEXT: SSRNLawyering to the Lowest Common Denominator: How Strickland Incorporates the Underfunded Norm into Legal Doctrine
Lawyering to the Lowest Common Denominator: How Strickland Incorporates the Underfunded Norm into Legal Doctrine, 5 Faulkner L. Rev. 199 (2014)
FULL TEXT: SSRNDeconstructing the Right to Counsel
Deconstructing the Right to Counsel, Issue Brief, American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (July 2014)
FULL TEXT: | PDFA Dilemma of Doctrinal Design: Rights, Identity and the Work-Family Conflict
A Dilemma of Doctrinal Design: Rights, Identity and the Work-Family Conflict, 8 FIU L. Rev. 379 (2013)
FULL TEXT: SSRNReclaiming Equality to Reframe Indigent Defense Reform
Reclaiming Equality to Reframe Indigent Defense Reform, 97 Minn. L. Rev. 1197 (2013)
FULL TEXT: SSRNUnintended Consequences: The Impact of the Court’s Recent Cases on Structural Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims
Unintended Consequences: The Impact of the Court’s Recent Cases on Structural Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims, 25 Fed. Sent’g. R. 106 (2012)
FULL TEXT: SSRN