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Daniel Epps

Professor of Law

Professor Daniel Epps writes at the intersection of constitutional law and theory, federal courts, and criminal law and procedure. His scholarship has appeared or will appear in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the New York University Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the American Law & Economics Review. His writing for popular audiences has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Vox, The Atlantic, and The Washington Monthly.

As a nationally recognized expert on the U.S. Supreme Court, Professor Epps is regularly quoted in the media. He has particular expertise in Supreme Court reform, where his work is influencing major policy debates. After presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg endorsed his and Ganesh Sitaraman’s proposal to restructure the Supreme Court, the plan received widespread attention in the popular press. A pioneering legal podcaster, he currently co-hosts Divided Argument with Professor William Baude, a podcast that analyzes the Court’s work. Professor Epps is an experienced Supreme Court litigator, whose notable practice experience includes serving as co-counsel for the defendant in Ocasio v. United States and drafting the successful petition for certiorari and merits briefing in Walden v. Fiore. He also served as a Special Counsel for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse during the Senate confirmation process for then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Professor Epps received his A.B. summa cum laude with highest distinction in philosophy from Duke University and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Articles Co-Chair of the Harvard Law Review and won the John M. Olin Law & Economics Prize. After law school, he clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. He then spent several years as an appellate specialist at King & Spalding LLP in Washington, D.C. While in practice, he also co-taught Supreme Court Decision-making at the University of Virginia School of Law. Immediately prior to joining WashULaw, he was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School.

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