Denise Oakes Shaffer has been teaching as an adjunct professor in Maryland Carey Law's Lawyering Program since 2024 and joined as a visiting assistant professor and associate director of the Lawyering Program in 2026.
Previously, she was an administrative law judge with the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings from 1998 until 2026. She served as director of the office’s Quality Assurance Division and was responsible for the training and supervision of administrative law judges, staff attorneys and support staff.
Before joining the administrative hearings office, she represented indigent individuals charged with crimes in the Trial and Appellate divisions of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.
Earlier in her career, she supervised students in the criminal justice clinic at Georgetown University Law Center as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow and clerked for the Honorable John C. Eldridge, Maryland Court of Appeals.
Professor Shaffer also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law where she taught Mediation Skills and Introduction to Trial Advocacy.