Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco

Biography

Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco, J.D., is an Assistant Professor at the St. Mary’s University School of Law who specializes in Territorial Law, Criminal Law and Negotiations. She joined St. Mary’s Law in August 2017 as a Law Success Instructor.

Her legal scholarship focuses on territorial law, examining legal issues regarding the political status of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories. In her scholarship, she examines the constitutional history of American territorial expansion and the ramifications of the application of the U.S. Constitution in the territories, including citizenship and nationhood.

Her work has been published in the Brooklyn Law Review, City University of New York Law Review, Stetson Law Review and her forthcoming research will be published in the University of Denver Law Review. She also has a forthcoming book to be published this year with Carolina Academic Publishing titled “The Law of the US Territories.”

Before transitioning to doctrinal faculty, Vendrell-Polanco taught courses as law faculty within the Law Success Program for over 6 years. She taught Legal Methods, Legal Communications, Analysis and Professionalism and Bar Preparation for Credit. Vendrell-Polanco also directed the supplemental bar preparation program (Raise the Bar) from 2018 to 2023, assisting graduates to prepare for the Texas Bar Exam.

Vendrell-Polanco graduated with honors from Texas A&M University with an undergraduate degree in International Studies and earned her law degree from California Western School of Law in 2014 with an Academic Excellence Award. Vendrell-Polanco has had a variety of professional experiences, including criminal defense in Southern California and representing low-income employees with numerous employment claims such as wage and hour violations, discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination claims.

During law school, Vendrell-Polanco worked at the California Western School of Law Library and worked with organizations such as California Innocence Project, Public Interest Law Foundation, Community Law Project Clinic, and clerked for the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California Criminal Enterprise Section.

• Pro Bono/Public Service Honors Society, California Western School of Law, 2015
• Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity

Articles

• No Remedy for Colonization, 28 CUNY L. Rev. 1 (2025)
• Checks, Balances, and Territories: The Founders’ Vision and the Reality of U.S. Territorial Governance, 54 Stetson L. Rev. 2 (2025)
• The Law of the United States Territories, Carolina Academic Publishing, co-authored with Neil Weare Weare, Anthony Ciolli and Adriel Cepeda (forthcoming, 2025)
• Puerto Rican Presidential Voting Rights: Why Precedent Should be Overturned, and Other Options for Suffrage, 89 Brook. L. Rev. (2024)

Presentations

• “Courtroom Colonialism,” University of Denver Law Review Symposium on Modern Interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment, April 2025
• “Courtroom Colonialism: Navigating Federal Criminal Prosecution and Local Autonomy in U.S. Territories” (Nominated New Scholar Panelist), Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, July 2024
• “No Remedy for Colonization in Puerto Rico” (Accepted Speaker), Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, July 2024
• “Territorial Law Across the Curriculum” (Invited Speaker) Stetson Law Review Symposium, Stetson University College of Law, Gulf Port, Florida, March 2024
• “Exploring Latinas in Academia,” (Invited Panelist) 2nd Annual Lawtina Network Summit, St. Mary’s University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas, October 2023
• “Puerto Rican Presidential Voting Rights,” 8th Annual ACS Constitutional Law Scholars Forum, University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, Oklahoma, February 2023
• “Building Communities for the Bar Exam,” Tenth Annual Association of Academic Support Educators Conference, May 2022