Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky earned his B.S. from Northwestern University in 1975 with highest distinction and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1978 cum laude. He began his academic career as an assistant professor at DePaul University College of Law from 1980 to 1983. From 1983 to 2004, he served as a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science. Chemerinsky then held the position of Alston & Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University School of Law from 2004 to 2008.

In July 2008, Chemerinsky became the founding Dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, where he also served as Distinguished Professor of Law, Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, and held a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science until 2017. A leading scholar in constitutional law, he is the author of more than twenty books, including "Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies" (2006), "Federal Jurisdiction" (1989), "The Case Against the Supreme Court" (2014), "Free Speech on Campus" (2017), "We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century" (2018), and "No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States" (2024), as well as over 200 law review articles. He has argued numerous cases before the United States Supreme Court. Chemerinsky's contributions to legal scholarship and education have been recognized with awards such as being named the most influential person in legal education by National Jurist magazine in 2014, election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016, the 2023 Ninth Circuit John P. Frank Award, and the 2025 American Bar Foundation Outstanding Scholar Award. He served as President of the Association of American Law Schools from 2021 to 2022. Since 2017, he has been Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.