David Rossman

Current Position

Professor of Law and Director, Clinical Programs in Criminal Law, Boston University School of Law,1978 to present.

Teaching interests: criminal procedure, law and social science, criminal trial practice and professional responsibility.

Responsible for operation of student defender and student prosecutor program

Professional Activities

Defense Attorney, 1972 to present, representing defendants in criminal cases in all levels of state and federal courts, counsel for respondent in United States Supreme Court case of Justices of the Boston Municipal Court v. Lydon, 104 S. Ct. 1805 (1984).

Assistant District Attorney, Middlesex County, 1988, responsible for grand jury investigations and prosecutions of white collar crime.

Special Assistant Attorney General, 1998-2000: representing Bar Counsel in federal litigation over the validity of provision regulating federal prosecutors in Massachusetts rule of ethics

Reporter, Standing Advisory Committee to the Supreme Judicial Court on the Rules of Criminal Reporter, 2005, (Deputy Reporter from 1995), responsible for redrafting rules and commentary.

Lecturer: Boston Police Academy, Middlesex County District Attorney's Office, Massachusetts District Attorneys Association

Consultant: Massachusetts Department of Personnel Administration, preparation of examination questions for police promotion examination; International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program, writing a portion of a report on the Reversal of the burden of proof regarding the apparently illicit derivation of profits and assets in the context of the fight against the criminal economy.

Selected Presentations and Appearances

“The American System of Plea Bargaining” invited lecture to the criminal law faculty of Tomsk State University, May 27, 2003

“Prosecutors in Jury Trials: Case Preparation and Courtroom Presentation,” invited lecture to staff of the Tomsk Oblast Procurator’s Office, May 28, 2003

“The Approach of the United States Criminal Justice System to International Crime,” invited lecture to students of the Faculty of Law, Tomsk State University, May 29, 2003

“Russian Legal Education and the Need for Critical Thinking,” Opening Remarks, to participants in Plenary Session, Conference: Russian Law at the Edge of the 21st Century, 3rd Annual Inter-Regional Student and Young Scientists Conference, May, 30, 2003

“The Defense Attorney’s Role in Jury Trials: Theories of Persuasion and Courtroom Techniques” invited lecture to criminal defense bar, Tomsk Oblast, May 31, 2003

“The Patriot Act and the Fourth Amendment” invited lecture to the Boston Bar Association, January 23, 2002

“International Law Enforcement and Individual Liberty” faculty workshop presentation, Boston University School of Law, January 31, 2002

Paper, “The Globalization of Crime and the Threat to Individual Liberty” presented at the Seminario de Derecho Penal Y Globalizacion (Seminar on Globalization and Criminal Law), Mexico City, May 2000

Guest speaker, Gene Burns radio show, WMEX, June & September, 2000

Commentator, The Connection radio show, WBUR, November, 1997

Commentator, Irish National Television, November, 1997

Commentator, Talk Back Live television show, CNN, November, 1997

Commentator, Adler On Line, television show, WABU, April, 1995

Address, "Seeking Common Understanding of the Law: An Explanation of Legal Principles and Procedures Governing Stop and Frisk Activities", to Civil Rights Community Forum, May, 1990, a meeting sponsored by the Greater Boston Civil Rights Coalition, the City of Boston, and the Boston Police Department

Testimony to the Criminal Justice Task Force of the Chief Justice's Commission on the Future of the Courts, November, 1990

Selected Publications

"Criminal Law and Procedure", in Annual Survey of Massachusetts Law, 1974-76

Right to Counsel: The Mandate of Argersinger v. Hamlin (coauthor) (Ballinger 1976)

Guilty Pleas (Matthew Bender, 1982), plus annual supplements

"Double Jeopardy", in Massachusetts Criminal Defense (Butterworth, 1990)

"Were there no Appeal": The History of Review in American Criminal Courts, 81 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 501 (1990).

“The Globalization of Crime and the Treat to Individual Liberty,” in Penero, Derecho Penal Y Globalizacion (2001)