September 24, 2026

Professor Alexandra D’Italia joins the School of Law as the Director of the Legal Analysis and Communication Program with more than 20 years of experience in legal writing education. Before joining UNM School of Law, she served as an Associate Professor of Law, Director of the Writing Center, and Director of the Moot Court Honors Program at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. In 2020, Professor D’Italia developed the Storytelling Project to teach students about the power of narrative in legal practice. National Jurist recognized the project for its innovation in 2022. The project’s workshops and speaker series, which were open to students, alumni, and faculty, explored topics ranging from fiction techniques in persuasive writing to evolving language in legal narratives. She was honored four times with Southwestern’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

Professor D’Italia has served as a contributing author and editor of treatises on state constitutional law, criminal law advocacy, torts and remedies, and litigation. She has also lectured widely on writing and advocacy. Before she became a full-time educator, she worked as a criminal defense appellate attorney. She earned her J.D. from Golden Gate University, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar and Managing Editor of the Law Review. She earned a master’s degree with an emphasis in fiction from the University of Southern California, where she graduated with honors and received the Edward W. Moses Award in Fiction. She teaches writing and storytelling at Jacaranda School for Orphans in Malawi.

Professor Shaw Drake joins the School of Law to teach in the clinical law program, focusing on U.S. border law and policy, immigration, and accountability mechanisms for federal immigration enforcement agencies. Before joining the UNM School of Law, he served as a Clinical Supervising Attorney and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School’s International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic, where he designed and supervised litigation and advocacy projects across the Americas and Africa. He previously spent five years at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he led policy and legal initiatives addressing border and immigration issues. While at the ACLU, he served as co-counsel in federal litigation challenging Title 42 expulsions and expedited asylum interviews and led a multi-year advocacy effort that resulted in reforms to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s vehicle pursuit policy.
Professor Drake earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he received the Bettina Pruckmayr Memorial Award in Human Rights and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He holds an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Immigration Law from the City University of New York and a B.A. with highest honors in Latin American Studies and Romance Languages from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following law school, Professor Drake clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow with Human Rights First.

Professor Jazmine Ruiz Johnston returns to UNM School of Law to teach in the Legal Analysis and Communication Program. She entered academia after a decade in legal practice as an appellate attorney in New Mexico, representing clients before the New Mexico Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, federal courts, and administrative bodies. Her practice included a wide range of complex civil appeals, including matters involving the Clean Air Act and the Advanced Clean Cars II regulatory framework, land grant disputes tracing back to the 1800s, and First Amendment litigation involving a pedestrian safety ordinance. Her scholarship focuses on appellate and constitutional law, access to the appellate justice system, and equity. Her current work compares state constitutional and statutory rights to appeal, examining differences in access to appellate courts and proposing methods for expanding access to appellate justice.
Professor Ruiz Johnston received her J.D. cum laude from the University of New Mexico School of Law, where she served as President of the Mexican American Law Student Association and as a Professional Articles Editor for the New Mexico Law Review. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Justice Edward L. Chavez (’81) (ret.) of the New Mexico Supreme Court. Now returning to her alma mater as a faculty member, Professor Ruiz Johnston brings her extensive private practice and appellate experience to the classroom and is excited to support and guide the next generation of lawyers.