Biography

The first woman appointed to the regular faculty, as well as the first to hold an endowed chair and the first emerita at Stanford Law School, Barbara Babcock is the author of Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz, published in 2011 by the Stanford Press. The book has notes and indexes online with extensive materials on early women lawyers at the Women's Legal History website.

In addition to her pioneering research on women in the legal profession, Babcock is also an expert in criminal and civil procedure and has taught courses and published in both fields. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1972, she served as the first director of the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia. On leave from Stanford, she was assistant attorney general for the Civil Division in the U.S. Department of Justice in the Carter administration. Professor Babcock is a distinguished teacher, being a four-time winner of the John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching at Stanford Law School. 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 Babcock, Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2011.
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Inventing the Public Defender, 43 American Criminal Law Review 1267 (2006).
• 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).

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Barbara Babcock, The Catalyst Behind a New Generation of Women Lawyers, book excerpt from Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz, San Francisco Daily Journal, August 6, 2011, p. 6.
• Barbara Babcock, A Pioneering Woman Lawyer, National Law Journal, April 25, 2011.
• Barbara Babcock, Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2011.
• Barbara Allen Babcock, Alma Mater: Clara Foltz and Hastings College of Law, 21 Hastings Women's Law Journal 99 (2010)
• 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.

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