Roberta K. Thyfault
Emerita Professor
Biography
Professor Emerita Bobbie Thyfault is from Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Metropolitan State College (now University) with a BA in psychology and a double minor in women’s studies and human services. She graduated magna cum laude from California Western School of Law in 1984.
After graduating from law school, Professor Thyfault clerked for the Chief, U.S. District Court Judge in Colorado. She then returned to San Diego to clerk for newly appointed U.S. Circuit Court Judge David Thompson.
Following her clerkships, she began her career as a court-appointed criminal defense appellate attorney, first at Appellate Defenders, Inc., and then as a solo practitioner. She has argued cases before the First and Fourth Appellate Districts in California, the California Supreme Court, and the Ninth Circuit.
In 1999, Professor Thyfault began teaching as an adjunct at California Western. She was hired as a full-time professor in 2001. She taught Legal Skills, the Externship Seminar, and the Legal Scholarship Training Seminar. She was the Director of the Legal Skills program from 2005-2019. She was voted Legal Skills Professor of the Year by the students in 2019 and 2020. Professor Thyfault retired as a full-time professor in 2020 but continued to teach as an adjunct in the Externship Program until 2024.
Professor Thyfault has coached the Jessup International Law Moot Court team for over twenty years, along with Professor Aceves. They have been assisted by alum Kate Clark. She has continued to coach the Jessup team in her retirement.
Professor Thyfault serves on the Board of Directors of Appellate Defenders, Inc., the law school’s Alumni Board, and Lawyers Club of San Diego’s Fund for Justice Committee.
Publications:
Ruth Hargrove & Roberta Thyfault, The Impact of, and Resistance to, the Use of Foreign Law on Juvenile Punishment in the United States, in Transnational Legal Processes and Human Rights 39-62 (Kyriaki Topidi & Lauren Fielder eds., 2013).
Roberta K. Thyfault & Kathryn Fehrman, Interactive Group Learning in the Legal Writing Classroom: An International Primer on Student Collaboration and Cooperation in Large Classrooms, 3 J. Marshall L.J. 135 (2009).
Roberta K. Thyfault, Legal Issues in the Assessment of Family Violence Involving Adults, in Assessment of Family Violence: A Legal and Clinical Sourcebook 73-87/71-86 (Robert T. Ammerman & Michel Hersen eds., 2d ed. 1999/1st ed. 1992).
Roberta K. Thyfault, Self-defense: Battered Woman Syndrome on Trial, 20 Cal. Western L. Rev. 485 (1984), reprinted in part in Representing . . . Battered Women Who Kill 27-35 (Sara Lee Johann & Frank Osanka eds., 1989).
Roberta K. Thyfault, Angela Browne & Lenore E. A. Walker, When Battered Women Kill: Evaluation and Expert Witness Testimony Techniques, in Domestic Violence on Trial 71-87 (Daniel Sonkin ed., 1987).
Roberta K. Thyfault, Cathy E. Bennett & Robert B. Hirschhorn, Battered Women in Court: Jury and Trial Consultants and Expert Witnesses, in Domestic Violence on Trial 55-70 (Daniel Sonkin ed., 1987).
Lenore E. A. Walker, Roberta K. Thyfault, & Angela Browne, Beyond the Jurors' Ken: Battered Women, 7 Vermont L. Rev. 1 (1981).