Associate Dean for Experiential Education
Professor of Law
Director, Bronfein Family Law Clinic
Co-Director, Center on Applied Feminism
majohnson@ubalt.edu
410.837.5779
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 422
Administrative Assistant: Terry Berk
410.837.5762
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 207
Education
B.A., Dartmouth College, 1987
J.D., cum laude, order of the coif, University of Wisconsin Law School, 1993
Areas of Expertise
Clinical Legal Theory
Gender Law
Family Law
Feminist Legal Theory
Property Law
Johnson joined the faculty in 2006. Professor Johnson’s scholarship focuses on issues relating to gender, feminist legal theory, and clinical legal education, and her articles have been published in the U.C. Davis Law Review, the B.Y.U. Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, and the Temple Law Review, among others. She is co-author of the book Lawyers, Clients & Narrative: A Framework for Law Students and Practitioners. Johnson has been a Visiting Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law (2020-21) and at Georgetown University Law School (2012-2013). Prior to joining the UBalt faculty, Johnson directed the Domestic Violence Clinic at the Washington College of Law, American University; was an employment discrimination litigator, with a special focus on sexual harassment law, at the D.C. firms of Terris, Pravlik & Wagner, Kalijarvi, Chuzi & Newman and the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights; was a Georgetown Women's Law and Public Policy Fellow; clerked for the Hon. Hector M. Laffitte in the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico; and served as articles editor for the Wisconsin Law Review.
As Associate Dean for Experiential Education, Johnson oversees UBalt's Clinical Law Program, comprising twelve law clinics, and the Externship Program. Johnson directs the Bronfein Family Law Clinic, where students represent clients in litigation and systemic advocacy relating to domestic violence and other family law issues. She also teaches Family Law, Property Law, and Special Topics in Applied Feminism and is co-director of the Center on Applied Feminism, which applies the insights of feminist legal theory to legal practice and policy.
She has held several leadership roles in the clinical legal education community including Co-President of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA), Chair of the Planning Committee, American Association of Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education 2014 Conference, and on the Planning Committee for the 2016 Conference. She has also had a leadership role in many feminist organizations and projects, including the Advisory Panel for the Feminist Judgments book series and the Board of Directors of the Women’s Law Center of Maryland.
Johnson has received several awards and recognitions, including the 2020 UBalt Law Outstanding Scholarship award; the 2019 UBalt Law Outstanding Service by a Full-Time Faculty Member award; the 2017 UBalt Law Outstanding Teaching by a Full-Time Faculty Member award; Top 25 Women Professors in Maryland in 2013; the 2012 USM Board of Regents' Faculty Award for Public Service; and Professor of the Year award by the UBalt Women's Bar Association in 2011 and 2008. Johnson is a member of the bars of the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Selected Publications
Books
Lawyers, Clients & Narrative: A Framework For Law Students And Practitioners (Carolina Academic Press 2017) (co-authored with Carolyn Grose).
Teaching Lawyers, Clients & Narrative: A Framework For Law Students And Practitioners (Carolina Academic Press 2017) (co-authored with Carolyn Grose).
Law Review Articles and Book Chapters
Menstrual Dignity and the Bar Exam, 55 UC Davis L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2021) (with Elizabeth B. Cooper & Marcy L. Karin).
Asking the Menstruation Question to Achieve Menstrual Justice, Colum. J. Gender & L. (forthcoming 2021).
Title IX and Menstruation, Harv. J.L. & Gender (forthcoming 2020) (with Bridget J. Crawford and Emily Gold Waldman).
Menstrual Justice, 53 UC Davis L. Rev. 1 (2019) (lead article).
Braiding the Strands of Narrative and Critical Reflection with Critical Theory and Lawyering Practice, 26 Clinical L. Rev. 203 (2019) (with Carolyn Grose).
The Ground on Which We All Stand: A Conversation About Menstrual Equity Law and Activism, Mich. J. Gender & L. (2019) (forthcoming) (with Bridget J. Crawford, Marcy L. Karin, Laura Stausfeld, and Emily Gold Waldman).
An Examination of the Lethality Assessment Program (LAP): Perspectives on Implementation, Help-seeking, and Victim Empowerment , Violence Against Women (2019) (coauthor with Tara N. Richards, Ph.D., Lane Kirkland Gillespie, Ph.D., and Katherine Kafonek, M.S.).
Feminist Judgments & #MeToo, 94 Notre Dame L. Rev. Online 51 (2018) (symposium).
Commentary: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Svcs., Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court (Cambridge Univ. 2016).
Changing Course in the Anti-Domestic Violence Legal Movement: From Safety to Security, 60 Vill. L. Rev. 145 (2015).
Security, Converge! –Panel on Intersections of Gender, Economic, Racial and Indigenous (In) Justice, Security, 5 U. Miami R.S.J.L. Rev. 357 (2014) (symposium).
A Home with Dignity: Domestic Violence and Property Rights, 2014 B.Y.U.L. Rev. 1 (2014) (reprinted in full in Tracy Thomas, Women and the Law (Thompson Reuters) (2015)).
Symposium Dialogue: Keynote Speaker Senator Barbara Mikulski, 42 U. Balt. L. Rev. 211 (2013) (Moderated by Professor Margaret E. Johnson).
Foreword: Applying Feminism Globally, 41 U. Balt. L. Rev. 217 (2012).
Teaching Social Justice Lawyering: Systematically Including Community Legal Education in Law School Clinics, 18 Clinical L. Rev. 401(2012)(co-author).
Balancing Liberty, Dignity and Safety: The Impact of Domestic Violence Lethality Screening, 32 Cardozo L. Rev. 519 (2010) (excerpted in Tracy Thomas, Women and the Law (Thompson Reuters) (2011)).
-cited extensively in Jaime Adams, Are Domestic Violence Homicides Preventable, The Crime Report, Feb. 24, 2014, http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/articles/2014-02-are-domestic-violence-homicides-preventable
-cited in U.S. v. Eaves, 2016 WL 1425451 (N.D. Okla. 2016).
'Having It Our Way: Women in Maryland's Workforce Circa 2027' Foreword. 9 U. Md. L.J. Race, Religion, Gender & Class 1 (2010).
Redefining Harm, Reimagining Remedies and Reclaiming Domestic Violence Law, 42 UC Davis L. Rev. 1107 (2009), excerpted in Nancy K.D. Lemon, Domestic Violence Law and cited in Douglas E. Abrams, et al., Contemporary Family Law (2d ed. 2009).
- cited in Sadoun v. Guigui, 2016 WL 444890 (S.D. Fla. 2016).
- cited in Schechter v. Schechter, 88 Mass. App. Ct. 239 (Mass. 2015).
-cited in Small v. Cannady II, 2014 WL 1240252 at 7 (D.C.Super.) (Trial Order) (March 26, 2014).
-cited in Axelberg v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 848 N.W.2d 206, 220 (Minn. 2014)(dissent).
“Avoiding Harm Otherwise”: Reframing Women Employees’ Responses to the Harms of Sexual Harassment, 80 Temp. L. Rev. 743 (2007).
-cited in Ortiz Gonzalez v. Burger King, 2013 WL 37961302013 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, June 27, 2013).
An Experiment in Integrating Critical Theory and Clinical Education, 13 Am. U.J. Gender Soc. Pol’y & L. 161 (2005).
A Unified Approach to Causation in Disparate Treatment Cases: Using Sexual Harassment by Supervisors as the Causal Nexus for the Discriminatory Motivating Factor in Mixed Motive Cases, 1993 Wis. L. Rev. 231 (1993), cited in Roy L. Brooks, et. al., Civil Rights Litigation: Cases and Perspectives (3d ed. 2005).
Other Pieces
Punishing Bar Exam Policies on Menstrual Products Must Go, Law360 (Feb. 25, 2021 5:36PM) (with Elizabeth Cooper & Marcy Karin).
Menstrual Products and the Bar: Advocacy Seeks to Create Equal Bar Exam Testing Conditions for Menstruators, Best Practices for Legal Education (August 5, 2020) (with Elizabeth B. Cooper and Marcy L. Karin).
Stop the Stigma Against Menstruation; Starting with the Bar Exam, National Jurist, July 28, 2020 (with Marcy Karin and Elizabeth Cooper).
Lessons Learned from the Suffrage Movement, 2 No. 1 Md. B.J. 115 (2020).
Bill Would Provide Representation for Abuse Victims, Family Law Update, Daily Record, March 21, 2019 (with Shanta Trivedi).
There’s Another Reason D.C. Needs Public Restrooms, Local Opinions, Washington Post, Jan. 8, 2019 (discussing the unrecognized need of menstruators).
Only 1 in 4 Women Who Have Been Sexually Harassed Tell Their Employers. Here's Why They're Afraid. The Conversation (June 5, 2018), https://theconversation.com/only-1-in-4-women-who-have-been-sexually-harassed-tell-their-employers-heres-why-theyre-afraid-97436 (and distributed by the Associated Press and published in other papers).
Gender and LGBTQ Rights in a Trump Presidency, Commentary, http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lawandtrump/ (Jan. 20, 2017).
Articles on Social Science Research Network
Presentations
Feminist Legal Theory and Gender Justice Issues
- Roundtable Discussant, Menstruation and the Law, Law and Society Meeting, Zoom, May 27, 2021.
- Presenter, Gender in Jail, Prison, & Coming Home: Intersectional & Innovative Approaches to Advocacy, Concurrent Session, AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Zoom, April 29, 2021.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice Now, Applied Feminism & Privacy Conference, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, April 22, 2021.
- Co-Convenor, Are you There, Law? It’s Me, Menstruation Symposium, Columbia Law School, New York, NY, April 9-10, 2021.
- Panelist, Asking the Menstruation Question to Achieve Menstrual Justice, Are you There, Law? It’s Me, Menstruation Symposium, Columbia Law School, New York, NY, April 9-10, 2021.
- Co-Presenter, Menstrual Dignity for Bar Examinees, New England Clinical Conference, Northeastern University Law School, Boston, MA, March 26, 2021.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice, William & Mary Law School, Williamsburg, VA, March 16, 2021.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice + Our Lives, Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, DC, March 11, 2021.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice Now, University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, March 9, 2021.
- Panelist, “Recognizing" the Black Family: Structural Racism's Obstacles to Kinship, Wealth and Prosperity, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, October 27, 2021.
- Panelist, Notorious RBG: The Life and Legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, October 15, 2020.
- Co-Presenter, Title IX & Menstruation, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, March 31, 2020 (canceled due to COVID-19).
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice for Students, BURKETalk, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC, January 7, 2020.
- Guest Lecturer, Menstrual Justice, Penn State Dickinson Law, Carlisle, PA, December 6, 2019.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice, Multifaceted Menstruation Workshop, Columbia University, New York, NY, November 22, 2019.
- Speaker, First National Period Day Rally, U.S. Capital, Washington, D.C., October 19, 2019.
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Presenter, Menstrual Justice, Technical Advisory Group on Menstrual Health and Hygiene Policy Review Project, Geneva, Switzerland, October 10, 2019.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice, Menstrual Equity Activism: The Ground on Which We All Stand, 21st Annual Women’s History Conference, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, March 2, 2019.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice, FRD Talk, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, November 1, 2018.
- Presenter, Menstrual Justice, Southern Clinical Conference, University of South Carolina School of Law, Columbia, South Carolina, October 19, 2018.
Clinical and Other Pedagogy, including Narrative Theory
- Presenter, Lawyers, Clients & Narrative: Interviewing, Legal Aid of Maryland Family Law Task Force Meeting, July 15, 2021.
- Co-Presenter, Lawyers, Clients & Narrative, Georgetown University law Center, Washington, D.C., January 25, 2019.
- Presenter, Lawyers, Clients & Narrative, Southern Clinical Conference, University of South Carolina School of Law, Columbia, South Carolina, October 19, 2018.
- Presenter, Lawyers, Clients & Narrative, New York Clinical Theory Workshop, New York Law School, New York, NY, September 21, 2018.