Professor Chris Dearborn

Professor Chris Dearborn has devoted his professional career to passionately and aggressively defending his clients and teaching both law students and lawyers to do the same.  Chris has been a Law Professor at Suffolk University Law School since 2007.  He was awarded tenure in 2013 and promoted to full professor in 2014. He teaches classes in Evidence, Criminal Procedure, State Constitutional Law, and Advanced Trial Advocacy. He also serves as the Director of The Suffolk Defenders Program, training and supervising 3rd year law students who represent indigent defendants in Boston’s Municipal Courts. Recently he was named the Director of the Law School’s Trial and Appellate Concentration. 

Professor Dearborn has also guest-taught at Harvard, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern, New England, and Western New England law schools.  He maintains a robust pro bono practice. Chris was also the only academic to serve on Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins’ Transition Team. 

Professor Dearborn has published multiple times on criminal law issues. He has routinely lent his expertise on “hot button” criminal law issues to the media and  provided commentary on high profile cases. Several times a year he lectures and trains criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors. 

Previously, Chris worked as a Senior Associate at Rankin & Sultan after spending a decade as a public defender trying life felony cases in Massachusetts state courts. He has represented individuals in state and federal court in both Vermont and Massachusetts. Chris serves on multiple state-wide boards and committees, including the Suffolk Lawyers for Justice and the Criminal Justice Counsel of the Massachusetts Bar Association. He is also a graduate of the prestigious National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers College.

Chris is a member of the Massachusetts and Vermont Bars, the U.S. District Court Bar, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 1st and 2nd Circuits.