JAMES E. COLEMAN, JR.
Columbia University, J.D.; Harvard University, B.A. John S. Bradway Professor of Law (1991-93, 1996 to Present) and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (2002-05) at Duke Law School. After serving as Class Marshall at Harvard College and a Harlan Fisk Stone Scholar at Columbia Law School, Coleman clerked for Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (now on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit) and then served as an Assistant General Counsel for the Legal Services Corporation, Chief Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, and Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Education, investigating members of Congress and providing legal advice on civil rights, rights of the disabled, and business and administrative law issues. While a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. (1993-96; 1982-91), he litigated a wide range of cases including criminal, civil, natural gas regulatory, administrative, employment discrimination (both plaintiffs and defendants), and various civil rights actions. He also has been chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities (1999-2000) and of the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project (2001-06), and has served on the Boards of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Alliance for Justice. He is the author of more than a dozen articles, published in such periodicals as the STANFORD LAW REVIEW, DUKE LAW JOURNAL, and the COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW.
Coleman’s research and teaching focus on legal ethics, negotiation and mediation, appellate litigation, criminal law, capital punishment, and wrongful convictions.