Margaret Kwoka
Professor
303-871-6275 (Office)
Office 460A, Frank H. Ricketson Law Bldg., 2255 East Evans Ave. Denver, CO 80208
Specialization(s)
Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Federal Courts
Professional Biography
Professor Kwoka’s research interests center on government secrecy, the Freedom of Information Act, procedural justice, and judicial review of agency actions. Her articles have appeared or will appear in the Yale Law Journal, Duke Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, and UC Davis Law Review, among others. She has also testified in Congress on government transparency, received the inaugural Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) Junior Faculty Teaching Award, and her research was featured in the New York Times. She teaches administrative law, civil procedure, federal courts, and national security law.
Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Denver, Professor Kwoka was an Assistant Professor at John Marshall Law School in Chicago and a Lecturer at George Washington University School of Law. She clerked for Judge Michael Murphy, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and Chief Justice Phillip Rapoza, Massachusetts Appeals Court. She also practiced as an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C., where she focused on government transparency litigation in federal court. Professor Kwoka is a graduate of Brown University and Northeastern University School of Law and a former education volunteer with Peace Corps in Burkina Faso.
Degree(s)
- JD, Northeastern University School of Law, 2007
- AB, Biology, Brown University, 2002
Licensure / Accreditations
- Admitted Attorney for Pro Bono Matters
Featured Publications
- First-Person FOIA, 127 Yale Law Journal 2204 (2018).
- Access Denied: Colorado Law Enforcement Refuses Public Access to Records of Police Misconduct (2018).
- Legends of the Legal Academy - Hope Lewis: Refuse the Ride, 67 Journal of Legal Education 861 (2018).
- Symposium - International Law, Local Justice: Human Rights Transformed - Introduction, 10 Northeastern University Law Review 13 (2018).
- The Procedural Exceptionalism of National Security Secrecy, 97 Boston University Law Review 103 (2017).
- Inside FOIA, Inc., 126 The Yale Law Journal Forum 265 (2016).
- FOIA, Inc., 65 Duke Law Journal 1361 (2016).
- Securing Access to National Security Information, 67 Administrative Law Review Accord 78 (2016) (invited review).
- Leaking and Legitimacy, 48 UC Davis Law Review 1387 (2015).
- Setting Congress Up To Fail, 17 Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy 97 (2015) (symposium contribution).
- Judicial Rejection of Transsubstantivity: The FOIA Example, 15 Nevada Law Journal 1493 (2015) (symposium contribution).
- Deference, Chenery, and FOIA, 73 Maryland Law Review 1060 (2014).
- Deferring to Secrecy, 54 Boston College Law Review 185 (2013).
- Intersecting Experiential Education and Social Justice Teaching, 6 Northeastern University Law Journal 111 (2013) (symposium contribution).
- The Freedom of Information Act Trial, 61 American University Law Review 217 (2011).
- Good But Not Great: Improving Access to Public Records Under the D.C. Freedom of Information Act, co-authored with Melissa Davenport, 13 University of the District of Columbia Law Review 359 (2010) (symposium contribution).
- Disparate Impact Claims Under Title VI Would Not Harm National Security, co-authored with Michael Kirkpatrick, 46 Harvard Journal on Legislation 503 (2009).
- Vindicating the Rights of People Living With AIDS Under the Alien Tort Claims Act, 40 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 643 (2009).
- Designing National Pesticide Legislation, co-authored with Jessica Vapnek and Isabella Pagotto, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 2007.
- Female Genital Surgeries: Rethinking the Role of International Human Rights Law, Human Rights Law Commentary (University of Nottingham 2007).
