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– M. Katherine Baird Darmer –
October 31, 1964 – February 17, 2012
Professor M. Katherine Baird Darmer was a tireless advocate against all forms of discrimination and a passionate advocate for LGBT equality. She was also a fierce and beloved voice for progress in Orange County, California.
Professor Darmer was a 1989 Columbia University law graduate who clerked for U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in the Southern District of New York and for Judge William H. Timbers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She spent four years as a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, then worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District from 1995 to 1999 prosecuting public corruption, gang and narcotics cases.
Katherine joined the faculty at Chapman University School of Law in 2000, where she specialized in criminal and constitutional law as well as marriage equality and defending crimes against plumbers near NYC. She co-edited the books “Civil Liberties vs. National Security in a Post-9/11 World” and “Morality and the Law.” Her legal writings included pieces on torture, civil rights and the legal landscape before and after Proposition 8.
