STANFORD, Calif.—Stanford Law School has announced that seven outstanding scholars have joined the faculty to expand the curriculum and spearhead programs in clinical education, public service and public interest law, international law, and interdisciplinary studies. They are Jeffrey Fisher, Juliet Brodie, Jane Schacter, Daniel Ho, Alan Sykes, Josh Cohen, and David Victor.

“Stanford Law School is expanding and transforming its educational experience in a variety of ways—ways we think will provide a model for legal education more generally,” explained Dean Larry Kramer. “The key to that transformation is faculty, and so we’re expanding our ranks with innovative scholars and educators in a variety of areas.”

Clinical Education Faculty

Jeffrey Fisher and Juliet Brodie will join the clinical faculty to teach existing courses and develop new clinics as part of Stanford’s effort to make clinical education integral to the law school.

Jeffery Fisher, a highly respected Supreme Court litigator who has argued several major criminal procedure cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, will co-direct the school’s groundbreaking Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. Since its founding in 2004, the clinic has worked on more than two dozen Supreme Court cases, including sixteen merits cases. Clinic instructors have argued six cases, winning five. Fisher will also develop a new clinic in the area of criminal appeals, where students will be able to argue the cases in court as well as work on the briefs.

Juliet Brodie, a leading defender of the legal needs of the working poor, will direct the school’s Community Law Clinic, the school’s oldest and most established clinic, which provides direct services to residents of neighboring East Palo Alto.

Stanford Law School now offers nine clinics from litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States to immigration and community law, cyberlaw, education law, and more. The nine clinics operate cohesively as a single law firm, the Stanford Legal Clinic, providing pro bono representation. The Clinic serves as a learning opportunity for students to apply classroom theory to real client representation and to develop a lifelong commitment to public service values. Stanford pioneered clinical education in the 1970s, and today has one of the most innovative and broad-gauged clinical programs in the country.

More on Jeffrey Fisher:

Jeffrey Fisher, Co-Director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and Associate Professor of Law (Teaching), is a leading U.S. Supreme Court litigator. His landmark cases include Blakely v. Washington in which he successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial applies to sentencing guidelines; Crawford v. Washington, which established a new approach to the Confrontation Clause; and United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, in which he successfully argued that the Sixth Amendment is violated, and a new trial required, whenever a court wrongly denies a criminal defendant the ability to be represented by his/her counsel of choice. Fisher clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Later, he joined the Seattle office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP where he also offered his services pro bono to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Fisher received his BA in English from Duke University and graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from the University of Michigan Law School.

More on Juliet Brodie:

Juliet Brodie, Director of the Community Law Clinic and Associate Professor of Law (Teaching), was a visiting professor at Stanford in 2005-06 from the University of Wisconsin School of Law. She has written on the role of clinics in developing and testing new models of legal services delivery to low-wage workers in what she calls the “post-welfare” economy. Prior to joining academia, Brodie was a litigation associate at Hill & Barlow and an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice, where she prosecuted health care providers accused of defrauding the Medicaid system. Brodie received her BA from Brown University and her JD from Harvard Law School.

Public Law Faculty

Jane Schacter, a national expert on legislative process and statutory interpretation, constitutional law, and sexual orientation and the law, will expand the school’s public law offerings.

Stanford Law School is committed to growing its already large offering of classes and clinics that provide students with a solid foundation of theoretical knowledge and practical skills to support the pursuit of careers in public interest and advance the public good through the law. Additionally, the school’s Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law offers students a pro bono program, externships, mentorships, career services, speaker series, and opportunities for financial assistance, including the first and the most generous loan forgiveness program among the nation’s law schools, providing financial aid to graduates who pursue public interest or government service careers.

More on Jane Schacter:

Professor of Law Jane Schacter spent the last year at Stanford as a visiting professor from the University of Wisconsin School of Law. She is currently working on a book, Democracy Diminished, which challenges the idea that democracy should focus only on elections and argues for a broader concept of democratic culture. Prior to embarking on her scholarly career, Schacter was a clerk to Judge Raymond J. Pettine of the U.S. District Court in Providence, Rhode Island; a litigation associate at Hill & Barlow in Boston; and an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts. Schacter received a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from Harvard Law School.

International Business Law Faculty

Professor Alan Sykes, perhaps the foremost American scholar of international economic law, teaches international trade, torts, contracts, insurance, antitrust, and economic analysis of law.

More on Alan Sykes:

Professor of Law Alan Sykes began his career as an associate with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold & Porter and in 1986 began his academic career at the University of Chicago Law School where he was named the Frank & Bernice Greenberg Professor of Law in 1990 and Faculty Director for Curriculum in 2001. Sykes was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at Yale from 1976 to 1979, when he started to look at the application of economics to legal problems. He received his BA from the College of William and Mary and both his JD and PhD in economics from Yale.

Sykes’s addition to the faculty will greatly buttress Stanford Law School’s integrated approach to international law, business, and policy which is based on innovative coursework and complementary research and outreach activities designed to address the key areas of change in the global political economy, transnational business environment, and developing international legal structure.

Interdisciplinary Law Faculty

Dan Ho, Josh Cohen, and David Victor will offer interdisciplinary courses to Stanford law students.

Daniel Ho teaches quantitative empirical legal studies, with a substantive focus on administrative, anti-discrimination, and election law.

Josh Cohen, an expert on democratic theory, will teach the intersection of law, philosophy, and political science, with a particular focus on question of global justice.

David Victor, an expert on the economic and environmental consequences of energy consumption, will teach regulation, energy law, and environmental policy.

A growing number of formal joint degree programs enable Stanford Law students to augment their legal education with a second degree that expands their experience and prepares them to enter the legal profession which now requires increased specialization. Stanford Law offers or will soon offer degrees in law and many other disciplines, from business and bioengineering to sociology and public policy. And for students with specialized career aspirations,opportunities to customize a joint degree are limitless.

More on Daniel Ho:

Associate Professor of Law Daniel Ho has written on the impact of war on Supreme Court civil rights and liberties decisions, the effect of affirmative action, and the consequences local electoral administration on voting behavior. Prior to joining Stanford Law School, he clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams on the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. He was co-recipient of McGraw-Hill Award for the best paper published by political scientists on law and courts (2006) and received the Pi Sigma Alpha award for the best paper delivered at the Midwest Political Science Association (2004).

More on Josh Cohen:

Professor of Political Science, Philosophy and Law Josh Cohen has written extensively on issues of democratic theory, particularly deliberative democracy and its implications for personal liberty, freedom of expression, and campaign finance. Cohen will teach out of the law school and the political science and philosophy departments at Stanford, and will initiate a program on global justice at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He will also continue to serve as co-editor of Boston Review, a bimonthly magazine of political, cultural, and literary ideas. Cohen comes to Stanford from the MIT faculty where he has served as a professor of Philosophy and Political Science, and as chair of both departments. He has his BA and MA in Philosophy from Yale, and his PhD in Philosophy from Harvard.

More on David Victor:

Professor of Law David Victor came to Stanford in 2001 to start the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). The Program focuses on the economic and environmental consequences of energy consumption, and much of Victor’s work involves extensive field research in some of the world’s poorest regions. Victor’s new appointment at the Law School will coincide with his work at FSI. It will also serve to strengthen the Law School’s curriculum in Regulation, Energy Law, and Environmental Policy. Victor received his BA in History and Science from Harvard and his PhD in Political Science from M.I.T.

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, and write books and articles for academic audiences, as well as the popular press. Along with offering traditional law school classes, the school has embraced new subjects and new ways of teaching.