Ron Tyler joined Stanford Law School in 2012 to direct the Criminal Defense Clinic after a 22 yearlong career as an assistant federal public defender with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of California. A dedicated defense attorney and nationally recognized expert, he has litigated at trial and appellate courts covering the full gamut of federal criminal cases. A founding member of the faculty of the Federal Trial Skills Academy and a faculty member of the Office of Defender Services Training Branch, he teaches regularly at seminars for criminal defense attorneys, investigators, and paralegals. He also teaches at the annual National Criminal Defense College in Georgia. He taught trial advocacy at UC Hastings College of the Law as an adjunct professor for many years. He is also active with several nonprofits including the American Civil Liberties Union, serving on its national board of directors.

Professor Tyler received his BS in computer science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 and had a brief career in high tech before changing his career focus to public interest advocacy. He began law school as a Tony Patiño Fellow at Hastings College of the Law and earned his JD from UC Berkeley School of Law in 1989, where he served as notes and comments editor on the Ecology Law Quarterly. After law school, he clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel.