Download Photo ↓
Brendan Conner
Associate Professor of Law
B.A., Saint Mary’s College of Maryland
M.A., The New School for Social Research
J.D., City University of New York School of Law
About
Brendan M. Conner is an Associate Professor of Law at Delaware Law School. He teaches Torts, Constitutional Law, Legal Methods, and other courses. Prior to joining Delaware Law, he served on the faculty of St. Thomas University’s Benjamin L. Crump College of Law and taught legal writing and research at William & Mary Law School and the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. He also served as a Clinical Adjunct Professor with the Economic Justice Project at CUNY School of Law, his alma mater.
Professor Conner’s scholarship critically examines the growing convergence of civil and criminal enforcement, particularly how civil proceedings are increasingly deployed to circumvent constitutional and evidentiary protections traditionally afforded to criminal defendants. Professor Conner has also published widely on how policing and child-protection systems respond to youth accused of drug- and prostitution-related offenses.
Before entering academia, Professor Conner served as a Yale Initiative for Public Interest Law Fellow and subsequently as a staff attorney at a New York City community-based organization serving runaway and homeless youth. In that role, he represented young clients in criminal defense, eviction cases, public-benefits hearings, and affirmative litigation in the state and federal courts.
Professor Conner is admitted to practice in the state of New York.
Courses
Torts I; Constitutional Law I and II; Legal Methods II
Publications
Publications on Google Scholar
Legal Scholarship
The Forensic Child: Reconciling Legalistic Thinking and Methodological Confusion in Child Trafficking Research, 53 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 71–106 (2025).
Hybrid Enforcement and Racial Capitalism: Uneven Development in Urban Criminal Law, 53 Sw. L. Rev. 398–403 (2025).
Fine-Tuning: The Emergent Order-Maintenance Architecture of Local Civil Enforcement, 42 Pace L. Rev. 138–95 (2021).
In Loco Aequitatis: The Dangers of "Safe Harbor" Laws for Youth in the Sex Trades, 12 Stanford J. C.R. & C.L. 43–119 (2016).
Salvaging “Safe Spaces:” Toward Model Standards for LGBTQ Youth-Serving Professionals Encountering Law Enforcement, 24 Am. U. J. Gender Soc. Pol’y & L. 199–241 (2016).
First, Do No Harm: Legal Guidelines for Health Programs Affecting Adolescents who Sell Sex or Inject Drugs, 18 Int’l AIDS Soc’y J. (Supp. 2015).
Research and Policy Reports
Locked In: Interactions with the Criminal Justice and Child Welfare Systems for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Who Engage in Survival Sex (2015) (co-authored, published by the Urban Institute).
Surviving the Streets: Experiences of LGBTQ, YMSM, and YWSW Youth in the Sex Trades (2015) (co-authored, published by the Urban Institute).
Health Equity for All: Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs and Access to Health Services for Adolescents 10–17 Engaged in Selling Sex in the Asia Pacific (2014) (co-authored, published by HIV Young Leaders Fund).
Other Publications
A New Law to "Save" Minors from Survival Sex will Force them into State Custody, The Guardian, Oct. 15, 2015.
David Felix: Jailed by an Unjust System, Failed by City Services, Killed by Police, The Guardian, June 10, 2015 (co-authored with Marissa Ram).