Shani M. King is an Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Benjamin L. Crump Environmental and Societal Law Institute at St. Thomas University College of Law. Prior to joining STU College of Law, he served as Vice Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, where he was the Martha L. Minow Scholar. Before joining Rutgers, Professor King taught at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he directed the Center on Children and Families.

Professor King attended public school outside of Boston before earning degrees from Brown University, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University. After law school, he spent a year in the Dominican Republic studying the impact of educational reform efforts on rural elementary school children.

Professor King began his legal career practicing white-collar criminal defense and securities litigation in New York City before returning to public interest work in San Francisco, where he represented children in human rights, immigration, school discipline, dependency, and guardianship proceedings.

He teaches and writes in the areas of children’s rights, family law, immigration law, education law, race and the law, environmental and social justice, and emerging issues involving youth, technology, and social media regulation. Professor King’s scholarship focuses on children’s rights, state power, inequality, and the ways law and public policy shape the lives of young people and families.