Shima Baughman

Jesus Christ’s teaching to serve “the least of these”¹ has guided every aspect of Shima Baradaran Baughman’s life.² A nationally recognized expert on bail, prosecutors, and criminal justice policy, she has spent her career fighting for liberty and endeavoring to create a more just society. 

In 2001, Baughman graduated from BYU with a degree in sociology, hoping to use her talents and acquired knowledge to care for the vulnerable and help solve social problems. She decided to study law, and while at BYU Law School, served as editor-in-chief of the BYU Law Review. 

After graduating first in her class in 2004, Baughman clerked for Judge Jay S. Bybee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, before going on to practice litigation at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York, where she received national press for her role in religious freedom prison reform litigation. 

She joined the faculty at BYU Law School in 2010 where she was voted Professor of the Year. In 2013 she began teaching at the University of Utah Law School. After ten years there, two of those serving as associate dean, she returned to BYU where she is currently a professor and distinguished fellow at the Wheatley Institute. Passionate about teaching, she’s strived to share a unique perspective with her students and has enjoyed what they’ve taught her in return. 

Baughman’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Forbes, and many top law reviews and scholarly journals. She has authored and coauthored three books and has been invited to present her work at Stanford, Cornell, UCLA, and many other law schools as well as to groups of federal and state judges and attorneys across the country. 

A formative experience for Baughman was her service as a Fulbright Senior Scholar from 2008 to 2010, researching and lecturing at the University of Malawi. Her unforgettable experiences there with pretrial detention and criminal representation led her to focus her efforts on criminal justice and bail reform and to research it further. 

More recently, Baughman has tackled the task of combining law and faith and enriching her scholarship with Christ’s teachings of forgiveness, mercy, and justice. Her work with the Wheatley Institute focuses on how religion creates human flourishing and how faith and unity bring societal healing. 

Baughman moved to the United States when she was seven as a refugee from Iran, and she and her husband, Ryan, have five children. She strives to spread positivity and share her testimony of Christ in all areas of her life and to inspire others to experience the lasting change that is possible through Him. 

Notes: 

1. Matthew 25:40.
2. Ashleigh Wilson, “Sima Baradaran Baughman—Restorative Justice Through Jesus Christ,” BYU Law, 5 October 2023. https://law.byu.edu/news/shima-baradaran-baughman-%E2%80%9804-restorative-justice-through-jesus-christ.