Anthony F. Renzo

Professor Renzo's areas of expertise include constitutional and civil liberties litigation. At Vermont Law School he has taught courses in constitutional rights litigation, appellate advocacy, and legal writing.

Professor Renzo received his BA with honors in 1968 from the University of Iowa and his JD in 1971 from the University of Colorado School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Constitutional Law. Following graduation, he served as a judicial clerk for the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. From 1973 to 2001 Professor Renzo was a practicing civil liberties and employment lawyer, representing a broad range of clients in federal and state courts throughout the country. He was litigation counsel in many high-profile cases at the trial and appellate levels, and also served for 4 years as Director of the Colorado ACLU Legal Panel. In addition, he was Director of the California Bar Examination from 1988 to 1991, where he worked on improving the minority pass rate and developed the California Professional Responsibility Examination.

Before joining the Vermont Law School faculty in 2001, Professor Renzo also taught law students and undergraduates at a number of universities and colleges. Courses taught included First Amendment Law and Litigation, the Supreme Court and Civil Liberties, Legal Process, Legal Writing, and Political Theory.

As a member of the Vermont Law School faculty, Professor Renzo's scholarship includes guest commentaries for the American Constitution Society, as well as a major article on military trials of civilians in the war against terrorism. Current writing projects include an article on judicial remedies for civilians wrongfully detained by the military.

Professor Renzo's classes are taught with an emphasis on the fundamentals of good lawyering. These include respect for the rule of law and the legal process; an obligation to stand up for dissenters, minorities, and the powerless; the disciplines of careful reading, precise analysis and clear writing; and the importance of professional integrity and humility.