Cara Foos Pierce

Cara Foos Pierce is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law. Additionally, she serves as the Director of the Masters of Legal Studies program for non-lawyers, which is scheduled to launch in the Fall of 2025. Professor Pierce graduated cum laude from SMU Dedman School of Law in 2002, where she served as the Texas Survey Editor for the SMU Law Review. Upon graduation, she clerked for the Honorable David C. Godbey, United States District Judge in the Northern District of Texas. She then joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP’s Dallas office, where she worked for five years on federal securities, constitutional law, trademark, copyright, and employment cases.

Professor Pierce next served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Dallas for 12 years, where she prosecuted a variety of offenses including human trafficking, hate crimes, violent crimes, organized crime, and fraud. She also served as the Human Trafficking Coordinator in the Northern District of Texas for 8 years, and she prosecuted over 80 human trafficking cases. During her time at the Department of Justice, Professor Pierce was honored with the Department of Homeland Security Director’s Award, the Texas Gang Investigator’s Association’s Prosecutor of the Year Award, and Traffick911’s Warrior for Justice Award.

Professor Pierce’s passion for human trafficking reform led her to join the Texas Attorney General’s office as Chief of the Human Trafficking Division. In that role, she supervised civil and criminal human trafficking investigations throughout Texas, and she trained thousands of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and community members about human trafficking. Professor Pierce also chaired the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Taskforce, leading Texas’ legislative efforts to reduce demand for commercial sex by making it a felony to buy sex from an adult and to raise the age to work at sexually oriented businesses to 21. In addition, Professor Pierce served as the State of Texas’s human trafficking subject matter expert, testifying in federal courts and legislative hearings.

Professor Pierce previously served as an adjunct professor in Civil Procedure at William and Mary School of Law and Professional Responsibility at Texas Wesleyan School of Law.