Amber Baylor is an Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and the director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, which provides defense representation on state criminal charges and supports advocacy efforts of local grassroots organizations working to reduce criminalization. Before joining the Law School in 2021, Baylor was the founder and director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at Texas A&M School of Law. The clinic provides defense in Texas municipal criminal courts and works with clients and advocates as counsel on federal clemency and compassionate release campaigns. Baylor has been a visiting assistant professor in the Veterans Law Clinic at Widener University Delaware Law School and a clinical teaching fellow and supervising attorney at Georgetown Law’s Community Justice Project clinic.

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Baylor’s scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as the Washington University Law Review, New Mexico Law Review, and Michigan Journal of Gender and Law on topics that include pedagogy for representation of community-based organizations; enforcement and regulation of municipal low-level crimes in communities of color; and use of low-level criminal charges in student discipline. Baylor is a former fellow of The International Legal Foundation, West Bank. Prior to teaching, Baylor was a staff attorney with Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and a trial attorney for Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc.