Golden Gate University

COURSES TAUGHT

• Advanced Legal Clinic
• Criminal Litigation Clinic
• Honors Lawyering Program: Lawyering Skills
• Lawyering: Ethics in Criminal Justice
• Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

• Clinical Education
• Criminal Litigation
• Trial Advocacy
• Wrongful Conviction

EDUCATION

PROFESSIONAL AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• 1991 to present: faculty at Golden Gate University School of Law.
• From 2001 to 2005, in collaboration with the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University, along with Adjunct Prof. Janice Brickley (and a team of students), Rutberg represented Peter J. Rose, winning his release from prison in late 2004 and his complete exoneration in 2005. (Rose served nearly 10 years of a 27- year sentence for a rape he didn't commit.)
• Practiced criminal defense with the Bayview-Hunters Point Community Defender, the Alameda Public Defender, the San Francisco Public Defender and the First District Appellate Project.
• Conducted 66 jury trials (1976-1994).
• Certified criminal law specialist from 1984-1994.
• Directed criminal defense clinics at the University of San Franciso (1976-78), the City University of New York School of Law (1989-90), and Santa Clara University School of Law (1990-91).
• Served as Co-Counsel in murder and conspiracy trial resulting in acquittal for Attorney Stephen Bingham (1986).

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• With Peter Keane.  Early disclosure would gut judicial complaint system, Daily Journal, May 22, 2013.

• Viewpoint: Happier Law Students, One Client at a Time, The Recorder, April 5, 2013.

• Viewpoint: Golden Gate Professor Susan Rutberg Remembers Bernie Segal, The Recorder, Sept. 2, 2011.

• co-author: Wrongfully Convicted: The Overrepresentation of the Poor, ch. 16 in: Vulnerable Populations and Transformative Law Teaching: A Critical Reader. Carolina Academic Press (2011).

• Justice Carter's Role in the Caryl Chessman Cases: Due Process Matters, ch. in The Great Dissents of the "Lone Dissenter": Justice Jesse W. Carter's Twenty Tumultuous Years on the California Supreme Court (Carolina Academic Press, 2010).

• Nothing but a Northern Lynching: The Death of Fred Hampton Revisited, Book review of: The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther by Jeffrey Haas (Lawrence Hill Books, 2010). Published by the Huffington Post, Dec. 4, 2009.

• Anatomy of a Miscarriage of Justice: The Wrongful Conviction of Peter J. Rose, 37 Golden Gate Univ. L.Rev. 7 (2006).

• Conversational Cross Examination, 29 American J. of Trial Advocacy 353 (2006).

• Using DNA to Free the Innocent, SFGate.com (Nov. 6, 2005). With Janice Brickley,

• Justice System Must Be Held To Account For Wrongful Convictions, Daily Journal (Nov. 2, 2005). With Janice Brickley.

• Conversational Cross-Examination, Women Defenders Newsletter (2004).

• Police Departments Should Record Custodial Interrogations, San Francisco Daily Journal p.4 (Sept. 13, 2004). With Robert Calhoun.

• In Defense of the Right to Trial by Jury: A Suggestion for the Ailing Czech Justice System, Common Law Society Review, Charles University School of Law, Prague, Cz (Summer 2002).

• Practicing What You Preach: The Return of the Ancient Public Defender, Women Defenders' Newsletter (Summer 1998).

• What I Did on Sabbatical: Returning after 15 years to my old haunts at the Hall of Justice, The Recorder (August 1998).

• Confronting the Abuse Excuse, The Recorder (July 16, 1997) (reviewing Black Rage Confronts the Law, by Paul Harris).

• Is Your Best Woman Really A Man? Nurturing a New Image of Women Criminal Defenders, The Recorder (May 21, 1997).

• Impeachment: The Law and the Art, 7 California Defender (Winter 1996-97).

• Teaching in a Changing Profession, Women Defenders Newsletter (Fall 1996).

• Starting the Conversation, Women Defenders' Newsletter (Winter 1995-96).

• Practice Corner: Tips on Preparing Your Case, Indiana Defender (February 1995).

• Bridging the Gap, San Francisco Examiner (November 11, 1995).

• California Criminal Law Practice and Procedure, ch. Felony Appeals, 2nd ed. (California Continuing Education of the Bar 1994).

• Not Guilty by Reason of Victimization, 20:4 CACJ Forum (California Attorneys for Criminal Justice) 36 (Dec. 1993).

• Syndrome Evidence, Defender (California Public Defender Association) (1993).

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

• Member, California State Bar

HONORS AND AWARDS

• Received the Northern California Innocence Project Pursuit of Justice Award (2005).

• Named a Local Hero by the San Francisco Bay Guardian (2005).

• Received the Golden Gate University Community Service Award (2005).

• Received the Criminal Trial Attorneys of Northern California Career Achievement Award (1998).