Welcome! I am an assistant 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 democracy by attending to the gritty details of the legislative process? 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 law, administrative law, and legislation. My research has been published or is forthcoming in Vanderbilt Law Review, Emory Law Journal, and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, as well as several leading social science journals, including Law and Social Inquiry and Studies in American Political Development.
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, a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Harvard College.
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, a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Harvard College.
