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Lolita Buckner Inniss, Dean and Provost’s Professor of Law, announced the appointment of four professors to Colorado Law’s full-time faculty: Ilan Friedmann-Grunstein, Justin Murray, Zachary Schmook, and Elaine Tornés-Blanco.ÌýÌý

“We are delighted to welcome these four distinguished scholars and educators to our faculty this fall," said Dean Inniss. "Each brings to Colorado Law a remarkable depth of expertise, compelling research agendas, and a steadfast commitment to developing the next generation of legal leaders."ÌýÌý
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Meet Colorado Law’s newest professors:

Ilan Friedmann-Grunstein - Associate Professor of Clinical Law (Criminal Defense Clinic)Ìý

Prior to joining Colorado Law, Ilan Friedmann-Grunstein served as a Deputy Public Defender with the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender in Colorado Springs.Ìý He has spent his entire career advocating for indigent clients facing criminal charges. Previously, Professor Friedmann-Grunstein served as an Assistant Public Defender with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and with the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office where he began his career. He has represented clients facing a variety of charges ranging from traffic offenses to homicides and has tried over two dozen cases.Ìý

Additionally, Professor Friedmann-Grunstein spent two years at The George Washington University Law School as a Friedman Fellow. During his fellowship, Professor Friedmann-Grunstein helped launch and co-taught the Criminal Defense and Justice Clinic where he supervised students representing indigent clients facing misdemeanor charges in D.C. Superior Court.Ìý

Professor Friedmann-Grunstein earned his Bachelor’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis and his Juris Doctor at Berkeley Law.Ìý

Justin Murray - Associate ProfessorÌý

Justin Murray joined New York Law School in 2019. He teaches or has taught criminal law, criminal procedure, constitutional law, and race, bias, and advocacy. He also co-directed NYLS's Criminal Justice Institute.Ìý

Professor Murray's scholarship focuses on prosecutorial institutions and decision making, and on strategies for preventing and penalizing illegal conduct on the part of prosecutors and other criminal justice actors. His academic work has been published in a number of law journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the Washington University Law Review. His scholarship has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and by judges on other courts, and he received the Otto Walter Award for best article by a full-time faculty member from the NYLS faculty for his 2021 article, "Policing Procedural Error in the Lower Criminal Courts."Ìý

Professor Murray has served as Chair of the Association of American Law Schools Criminal Procedure Section and remains a member of the Section's executive committee. He is a Special Editor for the Journal of Legal Education, a contributing editor for Crimprofs Blog, a member of the Advisory Board for Criminal Law an-d Criminal Justice Books, and a member of the planning committee for the Decarceration Law Professors group, among other institutional and service roles.Ìý

Professor Murray began his career as a clerk on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After that, he spent four years as an appellate lawyer at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, followed by a year at the Consumer Fraud Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. He then left legal practice to serve as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where he taught legal research and writing, before joining NYLS’s faculty.Ìý

Zachary Schmook - Associate Teaching Professor, Legal WritingÌýÌý

Zachary Schmook joins Colorado Law from the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he served on the legal writing faculty since 2017.Ìý

Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma, Professor Schmook worked for a nonprofit in St. Louis, Missouri, dedicated to ending housing discrimination. He represented both the nonprofit and individual clients before state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as in administrative actions before the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and state administrative agencies.Ìý

Professor Schmook has also previously worked with Washington University School of Law as a Clinical Supervisor for the Civil Rights and Community Justice Clinic and as an Adjunct Professor teaching mediation and legal writing courses.Ìý

Professor Schmook received his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland. In addition to his academic and legal practice experience, he serves as a Civil Affairs Officer in the United States Army Reserve, where his work focuses on supporting coordination between military and civilian institutions in complex environments.Ìý

Elaine Tornés-Blanco - Assistant Teaching Professor, Collection Services and Research LibrarianÌý

Elaine Tornés-Blanco will join the William A. Wise Law Library at the University of Colorado Law School as the Collection Services and Research Librarian. Most recently, she served as a Librarian Assistant Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where she taught legal research and provided reference support. Her work there also included growing involvement in collection development and acquisitions.

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Prior to her role at Miami, she was the Law Library Fellow (2022-2023) at the William A. Wise Law Library. Her professional experience also includes serving as a librarian at the University of Puerto Rico’s Business Administration Library.Ìý

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology (magna cum laude) from the University of Puerto Rico, a Juris Doctor (cum laude) from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where she published in Revista de Estudios Críticos del Derecho (CLAVE), and a Master of Information Science.Ìý
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Her scholarship and creative work include legal writing, poetry, and children’s literature. She is the author of Adventures of Human and Non-Human Beings: Children’s Stories of Childhood in Defense of Animals (also available in Spanish and Braille), and her work has appeared in literary anthologies.Ìý
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She is active in the law librarianship profession, serving as Chair of the Latinx Law Librarians Caucus of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), and as a co-author of a chapter in Exploring Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Academic Law Librarianship. Her professional interests include collection strategy, access to legal information, American Indian law, copyright, law and literature, and Foreign, Comparative, and International Law (FCIL), with a focus on supporting faculty research, student learning, and clinical programs.Ìý
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