2021 Judicial Conference Program

REENA K. SHAH, M.P.A., J.D. Maryland Access t o Justice Commission Maryland Bar Center | 520 West Fayette Street | Baltimore, MD 21201

REENA SHAH is a long-time advocate of social justice and social change, Reena is the executive director of the Maryland Access to Justice Commission, where she is charged with building a strong and sustainable future for the renewed Commission and implementing programs that increase access and quality of justice for all Marylanders. Prior to this, she was a staff attorney in the Housing and Consumer Law Unit and then, the first Director of the Human Rights Project at Maryland Legal Aid. She went to law school after a few years in public policy and international development, during which period she worked on Capitol Hill for U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), in a local Kenyan non-governmental organization, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal. Reena earned a B.A. from The George Washington University; a M.P.A. from Princeton University; and a J.D. from University of Maryland Carey Law School. Reena has been active in the community, having served on the boards of the Women’s Law Center of Maryland and Maryland Carey Law School and has been recognized at Maryland Legal Aid for her service to her clients and by the Daily Record as a Leading Woman. Reena is married with three children and revels in traveling and embraces new adventures.

ROBIN MURPHY Executive Director Disability Rights Maryland | 1500 Union Avenue, Suite 2000 | Baltimore, MD 21211 ROBIN MURPHY, executive director of Disability Rights Maryland (DRM), has been appointed to serve on the Maryland Attorney General’s COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force, a partnership between the Maryland Office of the Attorney General and the Maryland Access to Justice Commission. The prestigious 51-member Task Force will work to ensure Marylanders’ access to a just, fair, and equitable civil justice system as the state grapples with the fallout of COVID-19. ROGER A. FAIRFAX, JR. The George Washington University Law School | 2000 H Street, NW | Washington, DC 20052 ROGER A. FAIRFAX, JR. is the new Dean of American University Washington College of Law (WCL) and will be joining on July 1, 2021. He previously served as the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor and founding director of the Criminal Law & Policy Initiative at George Washington University Law School. While there, Dean Fairfax also served as the Jeffrey and Martha Kohn Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2015-2019, and as Associate Dean for Public Engagement from 2014-2015.

Dean Fairfax teaches courses in criminal law, constitutional and adjudicatory criminal procedure, criminal litigation, prosecutorial and criminal defense ethics, and seminars on the grand jury, white-collar criminal investigations, criminal defense, and criminal justice policy. He conducts research on discretion in the criminal process, the grand jury, prosecutorial ethics, and criminal justice policy and reform. Dean Fairfax has engaged in expert consultation and pro bono representation in internal investigations and in grand jury, trial, and appellate matters in state, federal, and foreign courts. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, and a variety of federal trial and appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Dean Fairfax graduated with honors from Harvard College, the University of London, and Harvard Law School. Dean Fairfax is a member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, a barrister of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and an elected member of the American Law Institute. In 2019, Chief Justice Roberts appointed Dean Fairfax to serve on the Judicial Conference of the United States, Advisory Committee for the Rules of Criminal Procedure.

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