Eve Brensike Primus, '01, the Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law, teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, and Habeas Corpus, and writes about structural reform in the criminal justice system.

Her scholarship has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as well as lower appellate courts. She also has won the L. Hart Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching on more than one occasion. Before joining the Michigan Law faculty, she was an attorney in the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. In that office, Professor Primus worked both as a trial attorney and as an appellate litigator, appearing several times before the state's highest court.

Professor Primus also has participated in the lawmaking process, giving legislative testimony and helping to draft proposed legislation on criminal justice issues. 

Prior to law school, Professor Primus worked as a criminal investigator for the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C.

In addition to teaching, litigating, and writing about criminal justice issues, Professor Primus also is the founder and director of the Law School's MDefenders organization—a group designed to educate and support aspiring public defenders.

Related Information

Areas of Interest

Education

  • Brown University, BA, magna cum laude
  • University of Michigan Law School, JD, summa cum laude, Michigan Law Review, articles editor; Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition board member; Henry M. Bates Memorial Scholarship Award recipient

Recent Courses

Clerkships

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Hon. Stephen Reinhardt

Featured Scholarship

Criminal Procedure and the Constitution, Leading Supreme Court Cases and Introductory Text

Criminal Procedure and the Constitution: Leading Supreme Court Cases and Introductory Text

  • Criminal Law
  • Constitutional Law

Modern Criminal Procedure, Basic Criminal Procedure, and Advanced Criminal Procedure, 15th, 2022 Supplement

"Limiting Access to Remedies: Select Criminal Law and Procedure Cases from the Supreme Court's 2021-22 Term"

Court Review
MLaw Repository
See All Scholarship

Activities

June 2020

Invited panelist, Panel Discussion on Just Mercy Film, University of Michigan Office for Health Equity and Inclusion.

November 2019

Delivered remarks, “The Last Ten Years of the Innocence Movement,” at The Criminal Law Society’s Symposium entitled Conversations on Actual Innocence & The Michigan Innocence Clinic, University of Michigan Law School.

July 2019

Presented "Incorporating Social Science Into Your Criminal Defense Practice," Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan Summer Conference.

March 2019

Presented "Revisiting Strickland and Cronic: Four Different Kinds of Trial Attorney Ineffectiveness," St. John's University School of Law Faculty Workshop Series.

February 2019

Invited panelist, "Voluntariness Jurisprudence," Voluntariness Doctrine and False Confessions: Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Symposium, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

July 2018

Presented "Equitable Gateways in Federal Habeas Review," CrimFest Conference, Cardozo Law School.

February 2018

Invited panelist, "Courthouses: Over-Criminalization and the Indigent Defense Crisis," A More Human Dwelling Place: Reimagining the Racialized Architecture of America: Michigan Journal of Race & Law Symposium, University of Michigan Law School.

November 2017

Invited panelist, "Minorities, Social Justice, and Police Enforcement: An Open Discussion," University of Michigan Department of Theater and Drama.

February 2017

Presented "Defense Counsel and Public Defense," Academy for Justice Criminal Reform Conference, Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

December 2020

Presented, “Disaggregating Ineffective Assistance of Trial Counsel Claims,” Federal Defenders of Central California Training Program.