Dinah Minkoff

Dinah brings a diverse experience as an attorney and legal researcher to Southwestern. Now a second-generation professor, a zeal for finding answers has been the unifying motif of her academic and professional life. 

While spending myriad hours in the library during her first and second years of law school, Dinah realized she wanted her legal career to focus on research.  After graduating cum laude from law school, Dinah immediately pursued a Master in Information Science and Library Science while practicing criminal defense with a focus on appellate work.  She has worked as a research attorney for small firms and organizations in Maryland and Virginia and was a law clerk at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland for over three years. After relocating to the West Coast, she practiced worker’s compensation defense.

Dinah’s first professional librarian position was at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, New Jersey, where she was a Research and Reference Librarian and Assistant Professor.  At Southwestern, she teaches legal research in the first-year LAWS program and Practical Legal Research to upper-division students. Her goal when teaching law students is to empower them to be efficient and nuanced researchers.

Dinah is an active member of library professional associations. She was a board member of the New Jersey Law Library Association and is currently a member of multiple committees in the Southern California Association of Law Libraries and the American Association of Law Libraries. 

While not collecting Bar admissions like Pokémon, in her free time she enjoys hiking, going to Disneyland, and sharing memes.  Her librarian paragons include Carla Hayden, Beverly Cleary, Rupert Giles, and Batgirl.