Dr. Banner joined the Phoenix School of Law in 2010 and currently teaches Criminal Law. She holds a Ph.D. in Justice Studies from Arizona State University and a J.D. with honors from the New York University School of Law. Prior to employment at Phoenix Law, Dr. Banner taught political science in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University. She is admitted to the Bar in New York and Connecticut.
Before embarking on her teaching career, Dr. Banner practiced corporate law in New York City, most recently with the firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Her practice primarily focused on business reorganization and restructuring, representing institutional lenders, Fortune 500 companies and distressed securities investors in complex financial transactions domestically and internationally.
Dr. Banner strongly believes in service. She volunteered for several years with the Legal Aid Society, where she interned with the Capital Defense Unit and represented defendants in criminal appeals. She also taught legal research and writing to inmates in the New York State prison system. During law school, Dr. Banner served as a staff editor on the New York University Review of Law & Social Change. She also received the Larry Fleisher Memorial Foundation Prize for extraordinary achievement in sports and entertainment law.
Dr. Banner has published several articles regarding gender, political violence and state violence in scholarly journals such as Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Her current research focuses on war, terrorism and human rights, exploring the narratives regarding race, class, and gender that undergird contemporary legal responses to terrorism, violent crime, and crimes of war. Her research has been funded by grants including a David L. Boren Award from the National Security Education Program, the P.E.O. Scholar Award, and an Arizona State University Dissertation Completion Fellowship. She currently is writing a book based on her Ph.D. dissertation entitled Making Death Visible: Chechen Female Suicide Bombers in an Era of Globalization.
