Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law. From 2008-2017, he was the founding dean and professor of first amendment law at UC Irvine School of Law, with a joint appointment in political science. Before that, he taught law and political science at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School. He also has taught at DePaul College of Law and UCLA Law School. He teaches constitutional law, first amendment law, federal courts, criminal procedure and appellate litigation. He is the author of 10 books, including "The Case Against the Supreme Court," (Viking 2014) and two books published by Yale University Press in 2017, "Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable" and "Free Speech on Campus" (with Howard Gillman). He also is the author of more than 200 law review articles. He writes a weekly column for the Sacramento Bee, monthly columns for the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal, and frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court. In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In January 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Dean Chemerinsky the most influential person in legal education in the United States. He earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University (1975) and his law degree at Harvard Law School (1978).