Prof. Orin S. Kerr

Professor Kerr teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, and computer crime law. His articles have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Columbia Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Virginia Law Review, New York University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Texas Law Review, and many other journals. According to the most recent Leiter Rankings, Professor Kerr ranks #7 among criminal law scholars in the United States for citations in academic journals. Kerr's scholarly articles also have been cited by most of the U.S. Courts of Appeals and over two dozen federal district courts. 

Before joining the faculty in 2001, Professor Kerr was an honors program trial attorney in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice as well as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He also is a former law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and Judge Leonard I. Garth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In the summer of 2009 and 2010, he served as special counsel for Supreme Court nominations to Senator John Cornyn on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2006, Kerr was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School. In the Spring 2011 semester, he will be a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Professor Kerr is a co-author of the leading casebook in criminal procedure with Yale Kamisar, Wayne LaFave, Jerold Israel, and Nancy King, now in its 12th Edition. He is also a co-author of the leading treatise in criminal procedure (with LaFave, Israel, and King) and is the author of a law school casebook on computer crime law. Kerr is frequently interviewed by major media outlets, and his scholarship and advocacy have been profiled in the New York Times and National Public Radio. 

The GW Law Class of 2009 voted to award Professor Kerr the Distinguished Faculty Service Award, the Law School's teaching award. Kerr has also represented criminal defendants in criminal cases. He recently briefed and argued a criminal appeal in the Sixth Circuit, and he represented Lori Drew pro bono against federal criminal charges brought in Los Angeles.

Before attending law school, Kerr earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in mechanical engineering. Kerr posts regularly at the popular blog "The Volokh Conspiracy," available at http://volokh.com. He is a member of the American Law Institute, and he was recently elected to the steering committee of the Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section of the District of Columbia Bar.

Education

Publications

Debates