Welcome! I am an associate professor of law at Northern Illinois University. My scholarship examines institutions and interactions not formally specified in the Constitution that nevertheless undergird the separation of powers. Two core questions animate this work. First, what can we learn about the structure of American constitutionalism by attending to the role that political parties and polarization play in it? Second, what can the reactions of actors in the executive and judiciary to landmark legal decisions teach us about the ways that courts shape subsequent political contestation? In pursuit of answers, I explore several fields foundational to the study of public law, including constitutional and administrative law and legislation.
My research has been published or is forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review, Emory Law Journal, Arizona Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, and N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, as well as several leading social science journals, including Law and Social Inquiry and Studies in American Political Development.
I have presented my work at, among others, the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, the University of Michigan Junior Scholars Conference, the National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars, the Loyola Constitutional Law Colloquium, the American Bar Foundation, and the American Bar Association's Administrative Law Conference.
Before coming to NIU, I was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and an associate in Kirkland & Ellis’s Chicago office, where my practice focused on commercial and appellate litigation. I clerked for Judge David Barron on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Judge Gary Feinerman on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. I hold a J.D. from Stanford Law School where I was an articles editor on the law review and a member of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Harvard College.
My research has been published or is forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review, Emory Law Journal, Arizona Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, and N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, as well as several leading social science journals, including Law and Social Inquiry and Studies in American Political Development.
I have presented my work at, among others, the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, the University of Michigan Junior Scholars Conference, the National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars, the Loyola Constitutional Law Colloquium, the American Bar Foundation, and the American Bar Association's Administrative Law Conference.
Before coming to NIU, I was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and an associate in Kirkland & Ellis’s Chicago office, where my practice focused on commercial and appellate litigation. I clerked for Judge David Barron on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Judge Gary Feinerman on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. I hold a J.D. from Stanford Law School where I was an articles editor on the law review and a member of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Harvard College.
