Faculty
Director Paul Biderman
Director, Institute of Public Law
B.A. 1967, City College of New York
Member of New Mexico, the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court Bars
Paul has served as director of the Rozier E. Sanchez Judicial Education Center of the Institute of Public Law since the Center’s inception in December 1991. Admitted to the state bar in 1971, Paul has previously served as New Mexico’s Secretary of Energy and Minerals, has staffed and led the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, has worked in legal services programs for Navajos and Northern New Mexico, and for seven years conducted private law practices in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. His legal career has included considerable work in consumer protection, utility regulation and Indian law. He has developed and taught seminars on Judging with Professor Ted Occhialino and Law and the Consumer at the UNM School of Law, and has served as faculty to the Leadership Institute in Judicial Education based in the University of Memphis. His article on judicial education, Of Vulcans and Values: Judicial Decision-Making and Implications for Judicial Education, is published at 47 Juvenile and Family Court Journal 61 (Summer, 1996). He served a one-year term as Board President of the National Association of State Judicial Educators, after having served three years as chair of the Editorial Board for the Association’s newsletter.
Paul has volunteered as a board member for numerous non-profit organizations, including terms as president of the Ghost Ranch Conference Center, the Western Interstate Energy Board, and the New Mexico Community Development Loan Fund. He is currently board president of the Monte del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe and a member of the Millennium (Substance Abuse) Treatment Services program.
JEC under Paul’s leadership has established a strong record of presenting conferences and publishing resources for the judiciary. It was also among the first state judicial education programs to use satellite teleconferencing, and has become a national leader in developing web-based educational programming. Their web course on Alternate Dispute Resolution earned JEC the annual Howell Heflin Award from the State Justice Institute in October 2002. Paul’s work has been recognized by his receipt of the 1997 Judicial Education Award from the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division and the 2005 Public Lawyer of the Year Award from the New Mexico State Bar. Paul lives in Santa Fe with his wife, Ellen, who was a founding director of the Santa Fe Children’s Museum and now works for the Family Development Institute at the University of New Mexico.
Contact Information
Ph.: 505-277-8789
Fax: 505-277-0068
Office: LCtr
Email: biderman@unm.edu
