Daniel W. Bernal is the Associate Director of Research at the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession.  He works at the intersection of civil procedure, ethics, and access to justice, with a current focus on the common but high-stakes state court civil disputes—like debt collection and eviction—that impact millions of Americans each year.  Daniel’s scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the New York University Law Review, the American Law and Economics Review, the Oklahoma Law Review, and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

At the Rhode Center, Daniel directs the research arm of an innovative partnership between Stanford University and the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the largest trial court in the country.  This pathbreaking work includes a randomized control trial to test the impact of eviction interventions, an AI-powered triage tool to connect eviction defendants with legal service providers, and an AI assistant to help court staff review eviction and debt default judgments.

Daniel earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School, his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, and his M.Ed. from the University of Miami.  Before joining the Rhode Center, he clerked for Andrew D. Hurwitz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Phoenix, Arizona and spent four years practicing law in the District of Columbia with Latham & Watkins LLP.