Assistant Professor of Law
zmakar@ubalt.edu
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 1113
Administrative Assistant: Tiffany Ralph
410.837.4561
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 1112
Education
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
J.D., University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
B.S., University of Maryland
Areas of Expertise:
Criminal Procedure
Prison Law
Civil Rights
Criminal Law
Pretrial Detention
Clinical Education
Before joining the School of Law, Makar taught at Georgetown University Law Center in the Civil Rights Clinic. She predominantly supervised cases involving issues of racial justice, including civil rights violations against incarcerated individuals and wrongful death resulting from police brutality.
In 2016, Makar co-founded and co-directed the Pretrial Justice Clinic at Baltimore Law, a clinic that served indigent persons wrongfully incarcerated prior to trial. During her time at Baltimore Law, Makar was recognized for her work and advocacy to advance bail reform in Maryland, and was the 2017 recipient of the Baltimore City Bar Association's Public Interest Attorney of the Year Award.
Prior to teaching, Makar was an Open Society Institute Fellow from 2014 to 2016. During her fellowship, Makar created the Pipeline to Habeas program, which the Baltimore City Office of the Public Defender now uses as a model to challenge the wrongful pretrial detention of indigent persons. Makar's project focused on revitalizing the use of the writ of habeas corpus in the pretrial context to secure release for her clients. Her program was used by the Office the Public Defender to obtain the pretrial release of 101 protestors arrested after the death in police custody of Freddie Gray.
Makar's scholarship examines the intersection of civil rights and criminal law, with a specific focus on prisoners’ rights and prison law jurisprudence. Her articles are featured or forthcoming in the Maryland Law Review, Southern California Law Review and the Washington Law Review.
Articles and Essays
Repugnant Markets in Prisons (work-in-progress)
On Prison Tablets (work-in-progress)
The Absence of Dignity in Prison Law, 84 Md. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2025)
Per Curiam Signals in the Supreme Court's Shadow Docket, 98 Wash. L. Rev. 427 (2023)
Detention, Disenfranchisement, and Doctrinal Integration , 95 S. Cal. L. Rev. 365 (2021)
Unnecessary Incarceration , 98 Or. L. Rev. 608 (2020)
Displacing Due Process , 67 DePaul L. Rev. 425 (2018)
Charm City Televised and Dehumanized: How CCTV Bail Reviews Violate Due Process of Law, 43 U. Balt. L. F. 56 (2014) with co-authors Edie Cimino and Natalie Novak