Maine Law welcomed two new visiting professors, Professor Bradford Colbert and Professor Steven Semeraro, for its 2025 spring semester. Both have distinguished reputations in their respective fields, which they have helped to shape over several decades.
Professor Colbert is a Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, MN where he has worked since 1989 with a focus on criminal justice and advocacy issues. He graduated from the same law school 1985. In addition to his scholarship and teaching responsibilities, Colbert directs the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP) program, which represents people who are incarcerated with their civil legal issues and challenges to their sentences. He also founded and directs Mitchell Hamline’s Reentry Clinic, assisting those with a criminal record fully reintegrate into society after serving their sentence. Colbert has received several awards in recognition of his clinical work, including The William E. McGee Public Defender Award of Excellence 2005 and, in 2014, he was named Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year, specifically for his service to juveniles serving life in prison without parole. While at Maine Law, Colbert will be teaching criminal justice courses.
Professor Semeraro is visiting from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, CA, where he created and directs the Entertainment, Sports, & Intellectual Property Fellowship Program. He has also recently taught at UC Irvine and the University of San Diego Law Schools. In 2003, he authored the Law Professors’ Amicus Brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Verizon v. Trinko, and in 2012, he won the Journal of Legal Education’s Fiction Writing Contest. Semeraro has written three case books, including An Introduction to Property Law in the U.S., which he is using this semester. He’s also written a host of articles on topics ranging from the laws governing credit card fees, to Habeas Corpus, to property rights and constitutional interpretation. His most recent piece, We Were All Originalists . . . For a Minute, will appear this semester in the San Diego Law Review. In addition to his writing, Semeraro also plays in the band The Innocent Bystanders. During the spring semester, Semeraro is teaching Property Law.
