Rachel Marblestone Kamins
Practitioner In Residence
WCL | WCL Faculty
Bio
Professor Kamins is the Director of the Decarceration and Re-entry Clinic, which represents incarcerated criminal defendants in sentence review proceedings and parole matters throughout Maryland. Professor Kamins has practiced criminal law for more than three decades. She began her career in the Maryland Office of the Attorney General representing the State in the Appellate and Supreme Courts, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. She spent the next 15 years in private practice focusing on all matters of post-trial litigation including appeals, sentence modifications, parole, and post-conviction proceedings. For the six years prior to joining WCL, Professor Kamins worked in the Appellate Division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, representing criminal defendants in state court appeals in the Appellate and Supreme Courts.
Professor Kamins is a past Chair of the Maryland State Bar Association’s Criminal Law and Practice Section Council and presently serves on the Executive Board of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys Association as well as on its Appellate Judicial Interviewing Committee.
Professor Kamins’ publications include the chapter on “Post Conviction Appeals” in Appellate Practice for the Maryland Lawyer: State and Federal, Maryland State Bar Association (Sandler, Levy, and Klepper), Sixth Edition (2024). She is a regular lecturer at the Judicial College of Maryland, state and local bar association events, and law schools throughout the region. She is active in the Maryland General Assembly, drafting legislation and testifying in support of criminal justice reform.
