John Nidiry

Professor John Nidiry teaches foundational lawyering skills in the first-year curriculum; he also teaches an upper-level seminar focused on criminal law practice and collaborates with clinical faculty to support students’ legal research and writing in the Clinics at Maine Law.

Prior to joining the law school in 2002, Professor Nidiry helped to establish the Federal Capital Habeas Project, a program of the Federal Public Defender dedicated to ensuring that indigent people facing the federal death penalty receive high-quality representation in their post-conviction proceedings. He spent sixteen years with the Project, representing individuals under federal death sentence in district courts, courts of appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court, and in connection with clemency petitions addressed to the executive branch. He also provided intensive litigation support and training to attorneys representing individuals under death sentence in post-conviction proceedings.

Professor Nidiry’s approach to teaching foundational lawyering skills is informed by his time in capital defense practice and emphasizes client-centered lawyering; the ethical responsibilities that accompany rhetorical choices lawyers make; strategic communication through legal citation; and the use of narrative elements in persuasive advocacy. His research interests focus on the death penalty, race and the criminal legal system, and lawyering skills pedagogy.

Professor Nidiry is a member of the Legal Writing Institute and the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He graduated from the University of Maine School of Law, cum laude, in 2006, and received his B.A., magna cum laude, in history from Bowdoin College in 2000.