SMU Taps Pamela Metzger to Lead Law School's Deason Family Criminal Justice Reform Center

© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.By Brooks Igo (March 30) – Southern Methodist University recently announced that criminal justice scholar Pamela Metzger has been selected as director of the SMU Dedman School of Law’s new Deason Family Criminal Justice Reform Center. Metzger, who joins SMU from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, will begin in her new role July 1. She will oversee the new center’s independent research and its development of educational opportunities focused on issues from wrongful convictions to mass incarceration. After Hurricane Katrina, Metzger achieved national acclaim for her efforts to help 8,000 indigent defendants left incarcerated without legal representation. “The work I did after Katrina represents the finest work I’ve ever been able to do. To have been given the chance to completely reimagine a criminal justice system – how many times does that happen? If you’re lucky, you get such a calling once in a lifetime,” Metzger said in the announcement. “With the Deason Center, I feel like I’ve been given that chance twice.”© 2017 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without…