Trevor G. Gardner

Trevor Gardner is Vice Dean of Research and Faculty Development & Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, School of Law. His primary research focus is the relationship between federalism and municipal police administration.

Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Professor Gardner pivoted to publish a series of papers exploring conceptions of racial equity in the field of criminal law. Article titles in this vein include “By Any Means: A Philosophical Frame for Rulemaking Reform in Criminal Law,” “The Conflict Among African American Penal Interests: Rethinking Racial Equity in Criminal Procedure,” “Police Diversity Theory,” and “On the Racial Disparities in Criminal Law.” Professor Gardner’s scholarship has appeared in The Columbia Law Review, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and Criminal Law and Philosophy. He is presently developing a book-length manuscript that centers federalism and political economy in the historical development of criminal law and administration in the U.S.

Gardner graduated from Harvard Law School in 2003 after serving as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal. He went on to work as a staff attorney in the Trial Division of the District of Columbia Public Defender Service, where he litigated juvenile and adult cases from presentment through disposition. After leaving criminal practice, Gardner obtained his Ph.D. in sociology at UC Berkeley with an emphasis in social theory. He then joined New York University School of Law as a Faculty Fellow and later the University of Washington (Seattle) as an Associate Professor of Law. Professor Gardner has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School.