Rate My Professor Marc Falkoff

Marc D. Falkoff is a Professor of Law at Northern Illinois University College of Law, where he joined the faculty in 2006. He holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, a Ph.D. from Brandeis University, an M.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, an Ed.D. from Northern Illinois University, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Falkoff teaches courses primarily in civil rights, constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, as well as lawyering skills, federal courts, and corporations. He served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2015 to 2020 and during the 2021-2022 academic year. In 2018, he helped found the law school's Prisoners' Rights Project and became its director in 2022. His research interests encompass legal education, the rule of law, and the practice of public interest law. Prior to joining NIU, he clerked for Judge Carlos F. Lucero of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and served as habeas corpus special master for the Eastern District of New York from 2003 to 2004.

Professor Falkoff represented prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay by the U.S. military from 2004 to 2024. For this pro bono work, he received the Charles F.C. Ruff Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year award in 2005 from Covington & Burling, the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award in 2007 from the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the Bill of Rights in Action Award in 2008 from the Constitutional Rights Foundation in Chicago. He edited the bestselling anthology Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak (University of Iowa Press, 2007), which has been translated into a dozen languages. Key publications also include 'The Hidden Costs of Habeas Delay,' 83 U. Colo. L. Rev. 339 (2012); 'The Legislative Veto in Illinois: Why JCAR Review of Agency Rulemaking is Unconstitutional,' 47 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 1055 (2016); and 'Thoughts on American Legal Education: Past, Present and Future,' 23 Chosun L.J. 3 (2016). In 2009, he received the Northern Illinois University Foundation Award for Faculty Excellence.