Maria Kolar

Maria Kolar is an Associate Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law, joining in 2020. She previously taught at the University of Oklahoma College of Law as a Visiting Assistant Professor and served in the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System's Homicide Direct Appeals Division. Her expertise spans criminal law, criminal procedure, and capital punishment reform. She holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame (Great Books Program), an M.A. in Philosophy from Emory University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Prof. Kolar’s career includes judicial clerkships with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. She contributed to the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, advocating for systemic reforms and a moratorium on executions. Her scholarship focuses on justice and fairness in criminal law, including jury roles in capital sentencing and felony murder rule critiques.

She is a finalist for OCU’s 2022-2023 Faculty Teacher of the Year Award. Her professional service includes roles on the Oklahoma Committee for Uniform Criminal Jury Instructions. She balances her academic work with family life as the wife of Dr. Randall Kolar and mother of five children.