Biography

The first woman appointed to the regular faculty, as well as the first woman to hold an endowed chair and the first emerita, at Stanford Law School, Barbara Babcock is an expert in criminal and civil procedure. She is also known nationwide for her research into the history of women in the legal profession and, in particular, for her research into the life of California’s pioneering female lawyer and inventor of the public defender, Clara Foltz, whose biography she is currently writing.

A former assistant attorney general for the Civil Division in the U.S. Department of Justice, Professor Babcock is a distinguished teacher, being the only four-time winner of the John BinghamHurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching at Stanford Law School. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1972, she served as a staff attorney and then as the first director of the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia. Upon her graduation from law school, she clerked for Judge Henry Edgerton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and worked for the noted criminal defense attorney, Edward Bennett Williams.

Key Works

• Barbara Allen Babcock, Inventing The Public Defender, Stanford Public Law Working Paper, no. 899993.
• Barbara Allen Babcock, The Duty to Defend, 114 Yale Law Journal 1489 (2005).
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Clara Shortridge Foltz: 'First Woman', 28 Valparaiso University Law Review 1231-85 (1994) (Reprint, with new introduction, from 30 Arizona Law Review 673).
• Barbara Allen Babcock, A Place in the Palladium: Women's Rights and Jury Service, 61 University of Cincinnati Law Review 1139-80 (1993).
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Clara Shortridge Foltz: Constitution-maker, 66 Indiana Law Journal 849-940 (1991)
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Defending the Guilty, 32 Cleveland State Law Review 175 (1983-84).

In the News

• Women Lining Up For U.S. Attorney Post
  Daily Journal, July 31, 2009

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Barbara Allen Babcock, Toni M. Massaro and Norman W. Spaulding, Civil Procedure: Cases and Problems, 4th Ed., New York : Aspen Law & Business, 2009.
• Barbara A. Babcock, Clara Foltz, in Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, Roger K. Newman, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
• Barbara A. Babcock, Henry Edgerton, in Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, Roger K. Newman, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
• LaDoris Cordell and Barbara Babcock, Being Penny-wise and Justice-foolish, San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 2009, pg. A13.
• Barbara Babcock, Clara Shortridge Foltz, The Visionary Defender, 17 Experience 6 (2007).
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Clara Shortridge Foltz: Inventing the Public Defender, in Noble Purposes: Nine Champions of the Rule of Law, Norman Gross, ed., Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2007.
• Barbara Babcock and Ticien Sassoubre, Deliberation in 12 Angry Men, 82 Chicago-Kent Law Review 633 (2007).
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Inventing the Public Defender, 43 American Criminal Law Review 1267 (2006).
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Toni M. Massaro and Norman W. Spaulding, Civil Procedure: Cases and Problems, Teacher's Manual, New York: Aspen Publishers, 2006.
• Barbara Allen Babcock. Public Defender Movement a Reminder of Justice Denied, San Jose Mercury News, February 26, 2006, p. 5P.

Affiliations & Honors

Honors and Awards

• Honorary LLD, University of San Diego, 1983; University of Puget Sound, 1988
• Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 1981, 1986, 1998, 2004
• Recipient, Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award of the American Bar Association, 1999