Profiles in Public Law: An Interview with Dean Erwin Chemerinsky

By David H. King*

Editor’s note: The following profile is the second installment of the Public Law Journal’s occasional series of interviews with California attorneys making impacts in California public law.

Over the past few decades, Erwin Chemerinsky has become synonymous with constitutional law and expert analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Chemerinsky is the founding dean and professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, founded in 2009, the first new California public law school in 40 years. Prior to becoming dean, Mr. Chemerinsky taught at DePaul University College of Law, UCLA School of Law, University of Southern California School of Law and Duke Law School. Mr. Chemerinsky is a prolific writer, having published numerous books, including his most recent, The Case Against the Supreme Court (2014), and hundreds of law review articles and other publications. He has argued several cases before the Court, most recently in 2013 as pro bono counsel of record in U.S. v. Apel. Mr. Chemerinsky has also served on several commissions, including a panel that reviewed the Los Angeles Rampart Police Scandal, and was elected as a Commissioner (and Chair) of the Los Angeles Elected Charter Reform Commission. Mr. Chemerinsky is a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School.

King: How are things going at the law school these days?