Shelley R Sadin

Shelley Sadin joined Quinnipiac University School of Law in 2013 as Associate Dean of Professional and Career Development. She leads the office in counseling students, developing and presenting co-curricular programs, and has worked with colleagues to promote new courses in privacy and cybersecurity.

Before joining Quinnipiac Law, Sadin practiced law for twenty-nine years, handling government and internal investigations, criminal trials and appeals, and civil rights matters. In 2004, she won a life verdict in one of the initial cases to be tried in the District of Connecticut under the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994. In 2001 through 2003, in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then the Supreme Court, she argued Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. Doe, 538 U.S. 1 (2003), rev’g 271 F.3d 38 (2001). In 2010 and 2011, she filed amicus briefs in two Supreme Court matters, DePierre v. United States, 564 U.S. 70 (2011) and First American Financial Corp. v. Edwards, 567 U.S. 756 (2012).

In 2022, Sadin revised Chapter 1 of Connecticut Criminal Procedure, (edited by Elizabeth Latif, Conn. Law Tribune, 5th ed. 2023), which Sadin wrote in 2015 for the first edition of the book. Her discussion includes diverging federal and state constitutional protections of individual rights and the consequent need for counsel to research and thoughtfully address state constitutional issues when handling state criminal cases. Sadin's previous publications include: "Sentencing Individuals Under the Guidelines: The Vital Role of Background and Character Information," Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol. II, No. 6 (May/June, 1999); "Where Have You Gone, Horace Rumpole?" The Champion, Vol. XXV, No. 4 (May, 2001); and "Law and Order on Campus: Essentials of Criminal Procedure," National Association of College and University Attorneys publication for annual conference (June, 2008).

Sadin is past co-chair and a current executive committee member of the Connecticut Bar Association's (CBA) Federal Practice Section. She has served on the CBA Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Committee on Human Trafficking, and served the judges of the District of Connecticut and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a number of appointed positions over the years, including as District Representative for the Criminal Justice Act Panel and as a member of the Federal Grievance Committee. Sadin is a member of the American Bar Association and the Connecticut Bar Association, is a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, and a board member of CT-STAR.