Michael Serota

Michael Serota is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and an Associate Deputy Director at the Academy for Justice.

Michael studies criminal law and public policy, with a focus on culpability, sentencing reform, and government decision-making.  His current research explores ways of building a less punitive and more equitable criminal justice system that is consistent with our moral responsibility judgments.  Michael’s scholarship can be found in print journals such as the California Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and William & Mary Law Review, as well as in the online publications of the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and University of Michigan Law Review.  And his op-eds have appeared in outlets such as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.  Michael has also written a comprehensive revision of the Model Penal Code’s general culpability provisions and an accompanying multi-volume legal commentary.  

Michael currently advises state governments on criminal code and sentencing reform, building on his years of experience working on criminal justice policy as a senior advisor and legislative counsel.  Prior to joining ASU, Michael served as Chief Counsel for Policy & Planning with the D.C. Criminal Code Reform Commission, and before that, as a Senior Attorney with the D.C. Sentencing Commission.  Michael has also witnessed the operation of the American criminal justice system from a variety of perspectives, clerking for federal judges at the trial and appellate levels, in a federal prosecutor’s office, and in a state public defender’s office.  And he’s taught introductory courses on criminal justice to incarcerated and at-risk youth through Georgetown Law’s D.C. Street Law Clinic and Berkeley Law’s Advocates for Youth Justice Program.