Arizona National Crime Victims' Rights Week Virtual Event

Paul Cassell is the Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and Distinguished University Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.

In 2020, he received the Ronald Wilson Reagan Public Policy Award - National Crime Victims' Service Award from the U.S. Department of Justice. This award is for leadership, vision and innovation which led to significant changes in public policy and practice that benefit crime victims.

Professor Cassell currently teaches crime victims’ rights and criminal law at the University of Utah and is a co-author of the nation's only law school textbook on crime victims' rights, Victims in Criminal Procedure. He represents crime victims and crime victims’ organizations on a pro bono basis in cases around the country. He testified several times before congressional and state legislative committees on crime victims’ rights issues and argued on behalf of crime victims and allied organizations in several state courts and in the United States Supreme Court.

In 2014, he argued for a crime victim before the United States Supreme Court in Paroline v. United States and Amy. The case involved the question of how restitution for victims of child pornography crimes should be awarded. This was the first time that a crime victim had appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to protect her own rights in a criminal case filed by a prosecutor. From 2008 to date, he has also represented victims sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein to obtain criminal prosecution of those responsible.

Professor Cassell is a Stanford graduate. He served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice and then as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Virginia. He became a U.S. District Court Judge and resigned his judgeship to work at the College of Law to teach, write, and litigate on issues relating to crime victims' rights and criminal justice reform.