Shannon P. Gardner

Professor Shannon Gardner teaches legal writing classes and Introduction to the American Legal System in the LL.M. program.

Gardner has twice received the Lex Lucet Mundum Award (in 2017, 2019, and 2021), as selected by the graduating international LL.M. students for excellence in teaching. As part of the international program at the College of Law, Professor Gardner has taught courses on the American legal system around the world, including Lebanon and Italy, as well as presented at conferences regarding teaching American law to international students.

Gardner is also active in the College of Law’s Travis H.D. Lewin Advocacy Honors Society (AHS), coaching intercollegiate appellate moot court teams, judging intracollegiate and intercollegiate moot court competitions, and mentoring students regarding appellate and trial advocacy.

Prior to joining the faculty of the College of Law, Professor Gardner was a federal criminal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California for 11 years. She served first as a trial attorney (in both the Major Frauds Section and the Narcotics Section) and, subsequently, as an appellate attorney in the Criminal Appeals Section. In the Criminal Appeals Section, she authored numerous briefs and argued several cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Professor Gardner was an attorney in private practice with the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, and served as a clerk to the Honorable William J. Rea of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Professor Gardner received her J.D. from the Loyola Law School, Los Angeles (cum laude and Order of the Coif) and her B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.