• Emory University  (Ph.D, 2003)
• University of Virginia School of Law  (J.D., 1994)
  • Virginia Law Weekly
• Washington and Lee University  (B.A., summa cum laude, 1990)
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Omicron Delta Kappa

• Virginia

• Panelist, "Holmes." Revolutionary Spaces, Boston, March 17, 2025.
• Speaker, “Crossing the River Styx.”  Library of Virginia, September 14, 2023.
• Speaker, “Supreme Court Preview.” Roanoke Bar Association, September 12, 2023.
• Panelist, “Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain.” American University, Washington College of Law, March 23, 2023.
• Panelist, Federalist Society’s “SCOTUS Review Series.” Washington & Lee School of Law, October 27, 2022.
• Moderator, “Conversations with Four Former Death Row Inmates.” Revoking Irrevocable Punishment Symposium. Washington & Lee School of Law, February 10, 2022.
• Speaker, “NOKELive: Of Courtiers and Princes.” Roanoke College, March 3, 2021.
• Panelist, “What Happened at the Capitol? Religion, Social Movements and Free Speech.”  Roanoke College, March 2, 2021.
• Panelist, “Supreme Court Reform.” Washington & Lee School of Law, February 9, 2021.
• Speaker, “Holmes.” Roanoke Bar Association, February 9, 2021.
• Panelist, “Notorious: The Legacy of RBG.” Washington & Lee School of Law, October 16, 2020.
• Speaker, Annual Meeting of the Capitol Page Alumni Association, October 16, 2020.
• Panelist, “Supreme Court Review.” Washington & Lee School of Law, September 10, 2020.
• Panelist, “Supreme Court Review.” Washington & Lee School of Law, September 2019.
• Lecturer, “Requiem for a Courageous Fool: A Discussion of the Life and Work of Marie Deans.”  Roanoke Bar Association, February 12, 2019.
• Lecturer, “Requiem for a Courageous Fool: A Discussion of the Life and Work of Marie Deans.” Fintel Library, Roanoke College, March 29, 2018.
• Lecturer, “A Courageous Fool: Marie Deans and Her Struggle against the Death Penalty.”  Washington & Lee School of Law, November 1, 2017.
• Panelist, “Supreme Court Review.” Washington & Lee School of Law, September 21, 2017.
• Lecturer, “A Courageous Fool: Marie Deans and Her Struggle against the Death Penalty.”  The Potter’s House, September 9, 2017.
• Faculty Sponsor and Moderator, “From Conviction to Clemency. Commonwealth of Virginia v. Giarratano: A Case Study in the Modern Death Penalty.” Washington & Lee School of Law, February 5-6, 2016.
• Panelist, “Power in the Law: Who Will Follow a Strong Woman?” Lara D. Gass Symposium on Women in the Law, Washington & Lee School of Law, October 31, 2015.
• Lecturer, “The Life and Death of Douglas Christopher Thomas.” Radford University, October 20, 2015.
• Panelist, “Supreme Court Review.” Washington & Lee School of Law, September 28, 2015.
• Co-sponsor and organizer, “Judicial Assistants or Junior Justices: The Hiring, Utilization, and Influence of Law Clerks.” Marquette University Law School Symposium, April 11-12, 2014.
• Moderator, “Using Simulation-Based Courses to Teach Law Students.” Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, August 2013.
• Panelist, “A Supreme Court Book Forum.” The Supreme Court Institute, Georgetown Law Center, October 22, 2012.
• Panelist, “Supreme Court Review.” Washington & Lee School of Law, September 17, 2012.
• Moderator, “Social Science and the Law.” Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, July 2012.
• Panelist, “Courtwatchers: Eyewitness Accounts in Supreme Court History.” D.C. Area Legal History Roundtable, George Mason Law School, October 14, 2011.
• Panelist, “Teaching Empirical Methods to Law Students.”  Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, August 2011. 
• Lecturer, “The Death Penalty in Modern America.” Stetson University, October 18, 2010.
• Panelist, “New Empirical and Theoretical Work on Judging and the Judicial Process.”  Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, August 2010.
• Invited Participant, National Law Journal Online Panel on the Retirement of Associate Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.  April 2010.
• Lecture, “Supreme Court Law Clerks.” Meeting of the Roanoke Bar Association, Roanoke, Virginia.
• Panelist, “The Past, Present, and Future of Law Clerks.” Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, August 2007.
• Panelist, “Authors’ Meet Critics Roundtable on Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk and Sorcerers’ Apprentices: 100 Years of Law Clerks at the United States Supreme Court.” Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, January 2007.

Books and Edited Volumes of Essays:

• "The Slow Death of the Death Penalty: Toward a Postmortem." NYU Press (June 2025) (with Mary Atwell and Jamie Almallen).
• "Crossing the River Styx: Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain." University of Virginia Press (March 2023) (with Russ Ford and Charles Peppers).
• Edited volume: "Of Courtiers and Princes: Stories of Lower Court Clerks and Their Judges." University of Virginia Press (February 2021).
• "A Courageous Fool: Marie Deans and Her Fight against the Death Penalty." Vanderbilt University Press (July 2017) (with Margaret Anderson).
• Edited volume: "Of Courtiers & Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices." University of Virginia Press (December 2015) (with Clare Cushman).
• Edited volume: "In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices." University of Virginia Press (February 2012) (with Artemus Ward).
• "Anatomy of an Execution: The Life and Death of Douglas Christopher Thomas." Northeastern University Press (November 2009) (with Laura Anderson).
• "Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk." Stanford University Press (April 2006).
• Edited volume: "Of Courtiers and Princes: Stories of Lower Court Clerks and Their Judges." University of Virginia Press (February 2021).

Book Chapters:

• “Family Traditions: Parents and Children Who Have Clerked at the Court.” Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices. University of Virginia Press (December 2015).
• “Of Cert. Petitions and LBJ: Clerking for Justice Abe Fortas.” Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices. University of Virginia Press (December 2015) (with Chad Oldfather and Bridget Tainer-Parkins).
• “Summer Vacation with Will and Misch: Chief Justice William Howard Taft and his Law Clerks.” Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices. University of Virginia Press (December 2015).
• “The Modern Clerkship:  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Her Law Clerks.” In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices University of Virginia Press (February 2012).
• “Half-Clerk, Half-Son: Justice Felix Frankfurter and His Law Clerks.” In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices University of Virginia Press (February 2012) (with Beth See Driver).
• Law Reviews and Legal Journals:
• “Supplementing the Record: The Life and Career of Judge Edmund L. Palmieri.” The Federal Lawyer (forthcoming, 2024). With Bridget Tainer-Parkins.
• “Thoughts on Law Clerk Diversity and Influence.” Harvard Law Review Vol. 137, no. 99 (December 2023): 109-132.               
• “Being in the Room Where it Happened: Celebrating Virginia’s First Female Law Clerks.” Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice Vol. 29, No. 4 (Spring 2023): 41-66 (with Anne Rodgers).
• “From Natchitoches to Nuremberg: The Life of Legal Pioneer Lyria Dickason.” Loyola Law Review: The Forum (April 2023).
• “Gertrude Jenkins, Unplugged.” The Green Bag 2d. Vol. 25 (Spring 2022): 231-239.
• “Remembering Judge Conrad.” Roanoke Bar Review (September 2021).
• “What We Should Learn from the Death of Virginia’s Death Penalty.” Roanoke Bar Review (June 2021).
• “Cancelling Justice? The Case of James Clark McReynolds.” Richmond Public Interest Law Review Vol. 24, No. 2 (May 2021): 59-78.
• “The Commonwealth of Virginia v. Joseph Michael Giarratano: A Cautionary Tale.”  Washington & Lee Law Review Vol. 73, No. 3 (2016): 1119-1126.
• “Truthiness and the Marble Palace.” Emory Law Journal Online, Vol. 65 (2016) (with Chad Oldfather).
• “Judicial Assistants or Junior Judges: The Hiring, Utilization, and Influence of Law Clerks.”  Marquette Law Review Vol. 98, No. 1 (2014): 1-12 (with Chad M. Oldfather).
• “Surgeons or Scribes? The Role of United States Court of Appeals Law Clerks in ‘Appellate Triage.’” Marquette Law Review Vol. 98, No. 1(2014): 313-332   (with Micheal W. Giles, and Bridget Tainer-Parkins).
• “Of Potted Plants and Political Images: The Supreme Court and the State of the Union Address.” Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy Vol. XXII, No. 1 (2012): 49-81 (with Micheal W. Giles).
• “Of Leakers and Legal Briefers: The Modern Supreme Court Law Clerk.” 
• Charleston Law Review Vol. VII (2012): 95-109.
• “Random Chance or Loaded Dice? Looking for the Hidden Politics of Judicial Designation.”   University of New Hampshire Law Review Vol. 10, No. 1 (March 2012): 69-96 (with Katherine O’Harra Vigilante and Christopher Zorn).
• “Till Death Do Us Part: Chief Justices and the United States Supreme Court.” Marquette Law Review Vol. 95, No. 2 (Winter 2011): 709-733 (with Chad M. Oldfather). 
• “‘Did You Hear the One About Chief Justice Burger and the Itinerant Litigant?" Behind-the-Scenes Humor at the Supreme Court.” The Green Bag 2d. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Autumn 2011): 25-40.
• “The Supreme Court and the Curse of the Gypsy: The Tragic Tale of Clarence Melville York.” The Green Bag 2d. Vol. 13, No. 2 (Winter 2010): 173-186.
• “Law Clerk Influence on Supreme Court Decision Making.” DePaul Law Review Vol. 58, No. 1 (2008): 51-77 (with Christopher Zorn).
• “Inside Judicial Chambers: How Federal District Court Judges Select and Use Their Law Clerks.” Albany Law Review Vol. 71, No. 2 (2008): 623-645 (with Micheal W. Giles and Bridget Tainer-Parkins).
• “Undue Influence?  Ideology and Supreme Court Law Clerks.”  JURIST: Legal News & Research.  March 3, 2006.

History Journals:

• “Building Consensus and Changing the Court: Warren Burger and the Supreme Court Bench.” Journal of Supreme Court History, Volume 51, Number 1, 2026, pp. 101-107 (Article)
• “The Chief Justice and the Page: Earl Warren, Charles Bush, and the Promise of Brown v. Board of Education.” Journal of Supreme Court History Vol. 47, No. 1 (March 2022): 27-43.
• “Arthur A. Thomas: A Hero of a Valet.” Journal of Supreme Court History Vol. 46, No. 3 (November 2021): 271-279.
• “‘Destructive to Judicial Dignity:’ The Poetry of Melville Weston Fuller.” Journal of Supreme Court History Vol. 46, No. 2 (July 2021): 148-161 (with Mary Hill).
• “Deborah Gelin: Supreme Court Pioneer.” Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly (March 2021).
• “A Secretary’s Absence for a Law School Exam.” Green Bag Almanac & Reader (Winter 2020): 156-166.
• “Melville Weston Fuller and the Great Mustache Debate of 1888.” Journal of Supreme Court History Vol. 45, No. 2 (July 2020): 140-150.
• "Mourning the Magnificent Yankee: The Funeral of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr." 41/42 Sup. Ct. Hist. Soc'y Q. No. 4 & 1 at 4 (2019).
• Social Science Journals:
• “Policy Making Under Constraint: Decision Modes in the U.S. Court of Appeals.” Justice System Journal Vol. 36, No. 2 (2015): 95-118 (with Micheal W. Giles and Joshua Strayhorn).
• “The Etiology of the Occurrence of En Banc Review in the U.S. Court of Appeals.”  American Journal of Political Science 51 (July 2007): 449-463 (with Micheal W. Giles, Virginia A. Hettinger, Christopher Zorn).
• “Research Note: Picking Federal Judges: A Note on Policy and Partisan Selection Agendas.” Political Research Quarterly 54 (September 2001): 623-641 (with Micheal W. Giles and Virginia A. Hettinger).
• Multi Media:
• "Chief Justice Burger on Cameras in the Courtroom." Supreme Court Historical Society's SCOTUS Scoops. February 27, 2025.
• “Efficient and Humane: Chief Justice Warren Burger Reconsiders the Bar Admissions and Reading Opinions from the Bench.” Supreme Court Historical Society’s SCOTUS Scoops. October 2023. With Tim Flanigan.
• “Justice Hugo L. Black, His Chambers Staff, and the Ku Klux Klan Controversy of 1937.” Supreme Court Historical Society’s SCOTUS Scoops. April 2021.
• “The Chief Justice and ‘Big Steve.’” Supreme Court Historical Society’s SCOTUS Scoops. February 2021.