Laura Rovner lectures and writes about the rights of people incarcerated in prisons and jails, particularly about solitary confinement.

Why you should listen

Laura Rovner is a Professor of Law and Director of the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Denver College of Law. Through her work at the clinic, she supervises law students representing incarcerated clients in constitutional litigation about prison conditions, such as indefinite solitary confinement, denial of outdoor exercise, lack of adequate medical and mental health care and the free exercise of religion. She is a recipient of the ACLU of Colorado's Edward Sherman Award for Outstanding Legal Work on Behalf of Further Civil Liberties in Colorado, the University of Denver's Distinguished Teaching Award and has been named as one of 5280 Magazine's "Top Lawyers in Civil Rights."

Rovner was a member of the litigation team that led to the creation of outdoor exercise yards at the State of Colorado's supermax prison, for which the team was selected as a finalist for the 2017 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Public Justice Foundation. She has provided expert testimony before the European Court of Human Rights about conditions of confinement in the federal supermax prison and served on the Colorado legislature's Work Group on Serious Mental Illness in Long-term Isolated Confinement.

Rovner earned her JD from Cornell Law School and her Master of Laws degree from Georgetown.

Laura Rovner’s TED talk