Professor Baker is the School of Law’s Director of Clinical Education and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Law. He directs the clinical program which includes the legal clinics, externships and practicum courses. He supervises and teaches the Community Justice Clinic, and he serves as the school’s pro bono director.
In the Community Justice Clinic, Professor Baker practices with law students to provide pro bono legal services to local nonprofits and international nongovernmental organization dedicated to justice, human rights, and community empowerment among vulnerable and marginalized populations. The Clinic serves clients at work in fields of homelessness and poverty, gender-based crimes and women’s empowerment, sustainable agriculture and rainforest conservation, human trafficking and access to education, farm-worker rights and access to justice.
Professor Baker graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School before returning to his home state of Mississippi where he had a diverse trial and appellate practice in health care, mass tort, products liability, pharmaceutical liability, medical malpractice, insurance, toxic tort and personal injury litigation with the firm of Watkins & Eager. From 2006-2013, Baker was an associate professor of law and Director of Clinical Programs at Faulkner University Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Alabama, where he was Professor of the Year in 2011-2012. At Faulkner Law, Professor Baker taught the Family Violence Clinic, designed and launched the Elder Law Clinic, and supervised and taught the Externship Program, among other courses. Professor Baker is a mediator, and coached Faulkner Law’s national championship teams in the ABA Representation in Mediation Competition.
His scholarship addresses domestic violence and gender justice in families, including intersecting fields of moral philosophy, religion, legal history, social science, and multidisciplinary professional responses. Professor Baker speaks and writes regularly on clinical education, professional formation, public interest lawyering and social justice. He also edits the Clinical Law Prof Blog and is actively involved with the Clinical Legal Education Association and the Section on Clinical Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools.
In Alabama, he received the Montgomery Advertiser’s Martin Luther King Spirit Honors Award and the Justice for Victims Award from the area domestic violence shelter. He has served as co-chair of the Montgomery County Task Force on Domestic Violence, on the Pro Bono Task Force for the Alabama State Bar, and on organizing committees for the One Place Family Justice Center. He also is an honorary member of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
In California, he serves on the boards of nonprofits committed to access to justice and health care in vulnerable international communities. He is actively involved in church, local public schools, and youth sports.
He is a member of the Mississippi, Alabama and California bars.