Caren Harp 
    Associate Professor of Law

    Education:
    J.D., University of Arkansas School of Law
    M.S., University of Arkansas
    B.S., University of Arkansas

    Areas of Teaching/Interest:
    Lawyering Skills
    Trial Advocacy

Email: 
clharp@liberty.edu

Phone:
434-592-5300

Caren Harp is Associate Professor of Law at Liberty University School of Law. Prior to coming to the School of Law, Harp worked at the Arkansas Public Defender Commission as Capital/Conflicts Attorney and Managing Attorney in the 13th district where she represented indigent defendants in criminal court, juvenile court, adult protective services cases, and incompetency proceedings. Prior to her work as a Public Defender, Harp worked as Chief of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit where she supervised 20 attorneys in the New York City Law Department—Family Court Division. There, she trained family court attorneys on sex crimes, rules of evidence, witness interview techniques, and trial advocacy. Harp used her experience and applicable knowledge to develop a curriculum and train New York City Probation and Parole officers concerning adolescent sex offenders.

In the late 1980s Harp worked as an agricultural economist in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and then worked for the Benton County and Union County Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney’s Offices.

Harp gained valuable teaching experience from 1993- 1998 as an adjunct faculty member at South Arkansas University and South Arkansas Community College teaching Introduction to Law Enforcement, Criminal Procedure and Evidence, Criminal Investigative Techniques, Legal Environment of Business, Arkansas Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, and Juvenile Justice.

In the late 1990s, she began her career at the American Prosecutors Research Institute as Senior Attorney. Over the following six years, Harp extended her services as a teacher at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, S.C.; program manager for the Home Improvement Fraud Against Seniors Program; senior attorney for the Sexual Assault and Violence Against Women Unit; project director for the Performance Measures for the Juvenile Justice System; and director of the National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center.

Harp’s experience also includes work as Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney at the Union County Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in addition to Assistant Attorney General of the Office of the Attorney General State of Arkansas in the Medicaid Fraud Department.

Harp is author of many publications including Measuring Impact: The Next and Necessary Step, Dennis Mahoney and Caren Harp, Juvenile and Family Justice Today, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Spring 2004; and Guide to Developing and Implementing Performance Measures for the Juvenile Justice System; Caren Harp, Dee Bell, Gordon Bazemore and Doug Thomas; Special Topics Series Monograph, April 2006.

Harp earned her bachelor’s degree in Agriculture and her master’s degree in Agricultural Economics. After earning her Juris Doctor degree she was licensed by the Arkansas State Bar, Eastern and Western District Courts of Arkansas and the New York State Bar. Her memberships include the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys; Outstanding Young Women of America, 1997; and past president of the Union County Bar Association.