Michael Romano
Director and Founder of Three Strikes and Justice Advocacy projects
Stanford Law School
Education
Wesleyan College
B.A., Philosophy
1994Yale Law School
M.S.L., Law
2000Stanford Law School
J.D., Law
2003Podcasts
682: What It’s Like To Work to Free Prisoners Sentenced to Life in Prison With Michael Romano, Three Strikes Project [Main T4C Episode]
Michael Romano is the director and founder of the Three Strikes and Justice Advocacy projects at Stanford Law School. He also teaches criminal justice policy and advanced criminal litigation practice. Michael has published several scholarly articles on criminal law, sentencing policy, prisoner reentry and recidivism, and mental illness in the..
Career Path
Interview Highlights
“The reason why I’m in this business is not about saving money as much as it is about saving lives and providing more justice to the system.”
Best Career Advice
“When something lucky does happen, take full advantage of that as possible but recognize it as luck and then apply the hard work.”
Career Challenge
“I had finished this fellowship at Yale Law School to launch me into being a tremendous journalist. And I got a big assignment from Wired Magazine about DNA testing. And they flew me to London to go study and interview people at Scotland Yard and to New York to talk with medical examiners. And for a number of reasons, I think that the article wasn’t nearly as good as I had thought. And they said, we’re going to kill it, we’re not going to publish it. They offered me a very modest kill fee, a fraction of what they would have paid had they published it. That was hard emotionally but also hard financially.”
Skills
Legal Research, Legal Writing, Litigation, Research, Public Policy, Courts, Public Speaking
Professional Interests
Stanford Law School, Yale Law School, Wesleyan University