Joshua Kleinfeld

Allison and Dorothy Rouse Chair in Law; Faculty Director, The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State

BA, Yale College; JD, Yale Law School; PhD, Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany

Professional Information

  • SSRN Author Profile Page
  • Subjects Taught: Constitutional Law, Corporate Criminal Law, Criminal Law, Legislation & Regulation
  • Curriculum Vitae: CV in PDF format
  • Area(s) of Expertise: Administrative Law, Constitution, Constitutional Law, Corporate Crime, Corporate Criminal Law, Crime, Criminal Law, Democratic Theory, Elite Power, Intellectual History, Judicial Power, Judicial Review, Legal Philosophy, Legal Theory, Legislation, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Popular Power, Populism, Public Law, Punishment, Ruling Elite, Statutory Interpretation, White Collar Crime

Contact Information

Biographical Sketch

Joshua Kleinfeld is the Allison and Dorothy Rouse Chair in Law and Faculty Director of the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Previously he was a full professor with tenure at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and a professor by courtesy in Northwestern’s Philosophy Department.

Kleinfeld writes and teaches at the intersection of law and political philosophy, particularly focusing on constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and criminal law. His work as a scholar and public intellectual has appeared in the Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, and University of Chicago Law Reviews, as well as The National Review. His frequent public appearances, podcasts, and videocasts include a TEDx talk on “Democracy and the Pandemic.”

Kleinfeld holds a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD in philosophy from the Goethe University of Frankfurt. He has clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit, Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit, and Chief Justice Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel. He has practiced law both with Debevoise & Plimpton, representing major corporations accused of billion-dollar wrongdoing, and the Northwestern Juvenile Criminal Defense Clinic, representing children accused of homicide.

Kleinfeld was a senior research analyst with President George W. Bush’s White House Council on Bioethics and a recipient of the Federalist Society Bator/Story Award, given annually to one scholar under 40 for excellence in legal scholarship, commitment to teaching, concern for students, and significant public impact.