Education
J.D., 1993, Tulane Law School
New Orleans, Louisiana
cum laude
B.A., 1989, Millsaps College
Jackson, Mississippi
magna cum laude
Contact Information
- Office: W151
- Phone: 225-578-8262
- Fax: 225-578-6018
- Email: rlancast@lsu.edu
Additional Information
- Curriculum Vitae: Download CV (PDF)
Robert E. Lancaster
Assistant Dean of Experiential Education
Biography
Robert Lancaster is the Assistant Dean of Experiential Education. He teaches the Parole and Re-entry Clinic, Administration of Criminal Justice I, Divorce and Child Custody Mediation, and Legal Interviewing and Counseling. His professional interests are primarily focused on the pedagogy of experiential legal education, exploration of issues of mass incarceration and prisoner reentry, and alternative methods of conflict resolution in family decision making.
Prior to LSU, he was a Clinical Professor of Law at Indiana University School of Law -Indianapolis. Professor Lancaster has also taught at the Washington School of Law, American University in Washington, D.C. and the Yale Law School. Prior to teaching, he represented death row inmates in state post-conviction and federal habeas proceedings.
Professor Lancaster has extensive experience living and working overseas. He spent a gap year after his college graduation in Japan. He has travelled throughout the provinces of China as the faculty director of the China Trial Advocacy Institute (CTAI) — a rule of law and human rights project headquartered at Renmin University School of Law in Beijing. He also served as resident faculty for the China Law Summer Program and the European Law Summer Program while at Indiana University as well as the Lyon Summer Program at LSU Law.
Professor Lancaster regularly serves as a visiting professor at the Université Grenoble Alpes Faculté de droit in France and at Shandong University School of Law in Weihai, China.
Professor Lancaster is a founding member of the Louisiana Parole Project – a non-profit focused on decarceration and the successful reentry of individuals who have served long prison sentences. He served on the Louisiana State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and he also serves the Louisiana State Bar Association as a member of the Access to Justice Committee and the LGBT Section of the Diversity Committee. Professor Lancaster was a longstanding member of the Board of Governors for the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)—a community of progressive law teachers working for justice, diversity and academic excellence.
Professor Lancaster received his BA, magna cum laude, in Philosophy (with Honors in English) from Millsaps College and his JD, cum laude, from Tulane Law School. He was the Robert M. Cover Fellow at the Yale Law School. He is admitted to practice in Louisiana, Indiana, and Connecticut and is a Qualified Child Custody and Visitation Mediator in Louisiana.
Selected Publications
Law Review Articles and Essays
Robert E. Lancaster, “La qualification des jurés pour les affaires impliquant la peine capitale aux Etats-Unis: Problèmes et Solutions,” essay in Peine de mort et droits de l’homme: Pour des standards internationaux de protection spécifiques aux personnes passibles de la peine de mort ou condamnées à mort, published by Editions Pendone (2023).
Robert Lancaster and Katherine Maris Mattes, Engaging Students in Systemic Change: The Role of Louisiana Law School Clinics in the State’s Criminal Justice Reform Movement, 80 La. L. Rev. (2020).
Cynthia Baker, Robert E. Lancaster, Under Pressure: Rethinking Field placements in a Bleak Economy, 17 Clinical Law Review 71 (2010).
Robert E. Lancaster, The Reformation of the Chinese Trial Model and the Training of Trial Skills, Beijing University Human Rights Law Review 200 – 209 (2008).
Robert E. Lancaster, Ding Xiangshun, Addressing the Emergence of Advocacy in the Chinese Criminal Justice System, 30 Fordham International Law Journal 356-373 (2007).
