Elizabeth Taxel

Elizabeth Taxel is a clinical associate professor at the University of Georgia School of Law and the director of the Criminal Defense Practicum. Her teaching emphasizes mastery of legal doctrine, critical analysis and strategic judgment, while encouraging students to examine the institutional and social forces that shape criminal law and practice.

Since joining the UGA faculty in 2020, Taxel has expanded the Criminal Defense Practicum into a statewide experiential learning program that partners with public defender offices throughout Georgia and, during the summer, across the country. Through classroom instruction, close faculty supervision and immersive field placements, she prepares students to navigate the legal, ethical and practical challenges of criminal defense while providing meaningful representation and litigation support in trial, appellate and other post-conviction matters. 

Taxel also founded the Prisoner Advocacy Project, through which students respond to correspondence from individuals who are incarcerated, research legal issues raised in these letters, and develop resource and referral materials. She developed the law school's Eighth Amendment Seminar, a writing-intensive course examining constitutional questions surrounding pretrial incarceration, punishment and prisoners' rights.

Before joining the faculty, Taxel spent 10 years with the DeKalb County Public Defender's Office as a trial attorney and, later, a supervising attorney. She tried criminal cases, supervised and trained new public defenders, and taught trial skills through the Georgia Public Defender Council's Transition into Law Practice Program.

Taxel remains actively engaged with the defense bar through consultation, training and the development of practical litigation resources. She regularly consults with public defenders and pro bono counsel on complex criminal cases and trains attorneys throughout Georgia on investigation, records litigation, constitutional criminal procedure, mitigation and client-centered advocacy. Her academic interests include indigent defense and the institutional structures that shape criminal defense practice and the broader criminal legal system.

Prior to law school, Taxel worked at the Montreal Children's Hospital implementing therapeutic programs for adolescents with severe psychiatric and behavioral disorders. She later developed legal, domestic violence and health advocacy programs for the Latinx immigrant community in northeast Georgia and worked with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government to develop bilingual community legal education programs.

A native of Athens, Georgia, Taxel earned her bachelor's degree summa cum laude in psychology from McGill University and her J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law, where she received the Ellen Jordan Award for outstanding work in public interest law.