Biography
Shanda Sibley’s research focuses on criminal law and procedure, as informed by critical legal and critical race theory. She is particularly interested in seeking out places where making relatively small procedural or administrative interventions can produce substantial substantive benefits to criminal defendants and the criminal legal system. Her interests grow out of her practice as an appellate criminal defense attorney, investigations of overlooked areas of procedural discrimination, and a scholarly concern with engaging in subject areas that will both center and amplify the interests of traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised communities.
Shanda’s in-progress scholarly work continues to explore the normative and practical implications of criminal procedure. This focus rests, in part, on the idea that procedural and administrative matters often play second-fiddle in scholarship regarding new or innovative approaches to criminal law. However, proposed changes to substantive criminal statutes require, at the very least, legislative action, but oftentimes also involve forming coalitions of interested and powerful forces, positioned to take up the cause of creating a movement to amend the law. In contrast, administrative or procedural “tweaks” are often a matter of simply implementing new court rules, a task which can sit in the hands of a single judge or judicial committee. Thus, a well-reasoned appeal for common sense rulemaking has the potential to generate better “bang for the buck” in terms of impact on the criminal legal system than more audacious suggestions for legislative reform.
As a clinician, it is Shanda’s desire to create a classroom environment where students will not only learn to think critically about the material in front of them, but also about the world around them. She wants to help students actively engage in the life of ideas, but also understand the importance of praxis. And she wants them to develop tools that will enable them to continue to engage in a process of learning – that is, self-teaching – throughout their careers.
Prior to joining Temple Law in 2019, Shanda was the Associate Director and an Acting Assistant Professor in the Lawyering Program at NYU School of Law.
Before entering academia, Shanda was an appellate public defender representing indigent criminal defendants on direct appeal and collateral proceedings in New York City. Her earlier experience includes litigation and transactional practice at two international law firms, and a clerkship for the Honorable Eric L. Clay of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In addition to arguing in federal court, Shanda has appeared before New York State’s highest court in cases involving the protections afforded to criminal defendants under the Fourth Amendment and the exceptions to New York's preservation rules. Shanda received a BA in Comparative Literature from New York University, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a JD from New York University School of Law.
For the last several years, Shanda has served on the Executive Board of the NYU Law Alumni of Color Association and as a mentor for current students and young alumni. She also sits on the Boards of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). In 2018, she won the Podell Distinguished Teaching Award for excellence in legal teaching at NYU Law.