Ernesto Chavez, J.D.

Background

Ernesto began his academic career at St. Martin's in Spring 2012 as a part-time instructor of criminal justice. As a former practicing lawyer his focus is currently legal studies, but he has also developed a diverse set of teaching interests and expertise. These include communications, philosophy, ethics debate and COR 100. Building on his philosophy background and experience as a Latino, in spring of 2022, Ernesto became the first instructor at SMU to teach Critical Race Theory.  Since 2019, he has been a full-time Lecturer in legal studies and philosophy. 

Before Saint Martin's Ernesto practiced for fourteen years as an attorney, focusing primarily on criminal justice and criminal defense. 

During a hiatus in 2017, Ernesto taught at the University of Washington-Tacoma. At UW, he was a lecturer in law and policy and also the school's Pre-Law Coordinator. He developed an innovative series of pre-law programming, including the school's first LSAT (admission test) prep workshops. At Saint Martin's he advises pre-law students on their applications to law school. Ernesto has also co-taught and co-coached the SMU student debate courses and the debate team. 

Ernesto is an autodidact in philosophy, that means he is self-taught from readings and experience in legal cases. His inspiration and role model for the lawyer-cum-philosopher is the Roman skeptic Cicero, who became a senator and consul at Rome (like a president) based on his storied career as a criminal defense attorney representing clients in Roman courts.