Violeta Chapin

Clinical Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Community and Culture

401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO  80309
Office: 105P
Phone: (303) 492-5830
E-mail: violeta.chapin@colorado.edu

Curriculum Vitae:  View (PDF format)

Bio:
Professor Violeta Chapin joins the Colorado Law faculty after serving for seven years as a trial attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). Professor Chapin has represented both adult and juvenile indigent defendants charged with serious felony offenses at all stages of trial. Prior to her work as a public defender, Professor Chapin had clinical experience performing appellate litigation in a capital case on behalf of a death row inmate, working together with attorneys at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Professor Chapin also worked with incarcerated youth in Louisiana and monitored the state's compliance with a consent decree to provide a safe and rehabilitative environment to children imprisoned in detention centers across the state. Professor Chapin brings a wealth of experience of working with indigent populations outside of the United States as well, as she previously worked with poor farmers and families in rural El Salvador in an internationally funded water project. Born in and having lived in Central America, Professor Chapin brings a rich cultural background and a firm commitment to justice for all people to Colorado Law.

Articles

Silencio! Undocumented Immigrants and the Right to Silence, 17 Michigan Journal of Race & Law 119 (2011).

Courses:

Fall 2025 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2025 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2024 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2024 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2023 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2022 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2022 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2021 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2021 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2020 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Summer 2020 Advanced Clinical Practicum LAWS 7019-902
Spring 2020 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2019 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2019 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2018 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2018 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2017 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2017 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2016 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2016 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2015 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2015 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2014 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Spring 2014 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-801
Fall 2013 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-001
Fall 2012 Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic LAWS 6029-001



Our Vision

With our roots in Colorado and a global outlook, we are ...

a supportive and diverse educational and scholarly community in a place that inspires vigorous pursuit of ideas, critical analysis, contemplation, and civic engagement to advance knowledge about the law in an open, just society.

Our Mission

To be an outstanding public law school that: provides students with a state-of-the-art legal education and prepares them to serve wisely and with professionalism; advances the development of knowledge through scholarship, testing of new ideas, and challenges to the status quo; and serves as a vehicle and catalyst for meaningful public service, all of which deliver high value to our students and have positive impacts?both locally and globally?on the legal profession and society.