List of University of Chicago Law School alumni
This list of University of Chicago Law School alumni consists of notable people who graduated or attended the University of Chicago Law School. The school has produced many distinguished alumni in the judiciary, academia, government, politics and business. Its alumni include the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the President of the Supreme Court of Israel, Chief Judges and Judges of United States courts of appeals, several Attorneys General and Solicitors General of the United States, members of Congress and cabinet officials, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, university Presidents and faculty Deans, and CEOs and chairpersons of multinational corporations.
Classes at the law school started in 1903. All degrees listed below are Bachelor of Laws or Juris Doctor, unless noted otherwise.
Law and government
United States government
Executive branch
U.S. Attorneys General">United States Attorney General">U.S. Attorneys General
- John Ashcroft, 79th U.S. Attorney General
- Ramsey Clark, 66th U.S. Attorney General
- Edward H. Levi, 71st U.S. Attorney General
U.S. Solicitors General">United States Solicitor General">U.S. Solicitors General
- Robert Bork, 35th U.S. Solicitor General ; also Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- Noel Francisco, 47th U.S. Solicitor General
- Rex E. Lee, 37th U.S. Solicitor General ; also president of Brigham Young University
Other cabinet and cabinet-level officials">Cabinet of the United States">cabinet and cabinet-level officials
- Pat Cipollone, 39th White House Counsel
- Eugene Scalia, 28th United States Secretary of Labor
- James Comey, 7th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ; also 31st U.S. Deputy Attorney General
- Douglas M. Costle, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Harold L. Ickes, 32nd Secretary of the Interior ; also High Commissioner to the Philippines
- Robert Todd Lincoln, 35th United States Secretary of War ; also U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom
- Abner Mikva, 27th White House Counsel ; also Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- Lisa Monaco, 6th U.S. Homeland Security Advisor and Assistant Attorney General for National Security
- Abraham Ribicoff, 4th Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare ; also U.S. Senator and 80th Governor of Connecticut
Legislative branch (U.S. Congress">Congress of the United States">U.S. Congress)
Senators">United States Senate">Senators
- Carol Moseley Braun, U.S. Senator ; also United States Ambassador to New Zealand and United States Ambassador to Samoa
- Zales Ecton, U.S. Senator
- Herbert E. Hitchcock, U.S. Senator
- James W. Huffman, U.S. Senator
- Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator
- James P. Pope, U.S. Senator ; also 35th Mayor of Boise, Idaho
- Abraham Ribicoff, U.S. Senator ; also 4th Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and 80th Governor of Connecticut
- David W. Stewart, U.S. Senator
- Jim Talent, U.S. Senator
Representatives">United States House of Representatives">Representatives
- John B. Bennett, U.S. Representative
- Albert M. Cole, U.S. Representative
- Elizabeth Cheney, U.S. Representative
- James I. Dolliver, U.S. Representative
- Edward C. Eicher, U.S. Representative ; also Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Charles N. Fowler, U.S. Representative
- Edgar A. Jonas, U.S. Representative
- David M. McIntosh, U.S. Representative
- David Minge, U.S. Representative ; also Judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals
- Patsy Mink, U.S. Representative
- Samuel J. Nicholls, U.S. Representative
- Kathryn O'Loughlin McCarthy, U.S. Representative
- John Pickler, U.S. Representative
- J. W. Robinson, U.S. Representative
Judicial branch
Federal courts of appeals">United States courts of appeals">courts of appeals
- Danny Julian Boggs, Judge and formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- Frank H. Easterbrook, Judge and formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Allison H. Eid, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ; also Associate Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court
- Florence Ellinwood Allen, Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ; also Associate Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court
- Philip J. Finnegan, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Jerome Frank, Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ; also Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
- Douglas H. Ginsburg, Judge and formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- James C. Ho, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ; also 4th Solicitor General of Texas
- Michael W. McConnell, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Professor at Stanford Law School; also Professor at Stanford Law School
- George Thomas McDermott, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- Monroe G. McKay, Judge and formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- Abner Mikva, Judge and Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- Eric D. Miller, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Eric E. Murphy, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ; also 9th Solicitor General of Ohio
- Walter Lyndon Pope, Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Neomi Rao, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ; also administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
- Julius N. Richardson, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- Elmer Jacob Schnackenberg, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Mary M. Schroeder, Judge and formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Milan Smith, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Hardress Nathaniel Swaim, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ; also Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court
- David S. Tatel, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Federal district courts">United States district court">district courts
- Richard Bevan Austin, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Axel John Beck, Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota
- Morton A. Brody, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine
- Douglas R. Cole, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ; also 5th Solicitor General of Ohio
- Edward C. Eicher, Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ; also U.S. Representative
- Roger Thomas Foley, Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada
- Paul Grewal, Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ; also vice-president and deputy general counsel of Facebook
- Terry J. Hatter Jr., Judge and formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- William Charles Lee, Judge and previously Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana
- Harry Leinenweber, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- William J. Martínez, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- Claude C. McColloch, Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon
- Peter Jo Messitte, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
- Robert Dale Morgan, Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois and Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
- Walker David Miller, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- Alexander J. Napoli, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Carl J. Nichols, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Howard C. Nielson Jr., Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah
- Martha M. Pacold, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Barrington D. Parker, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- James Benton Parsons, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ; also first African-American to serve as a United States federal judge
- Joseph Sam Perry, Judge of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Casper Platt, Judge and formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois
- Willis William Ritter, Judge and later Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah
- Lee H. Rosenthal, Judge and currently Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
- Mary M. Rowland, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ; also former Magistrate Judge of the same court
- Milton Shadur, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Manish S. Shah, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Herbert Jay Stern, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and Judge of the United States Court for Berlin
- Hubert Louis Will, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- George H. Wu, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Other federal courts
- Arnold R. Baar, Judge of the U.S. Tax Court
- Richard Hertling, Judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims
- Mark V. Holmes, Judge of the U.S. Tax Court
- Christopher M. Klein, Judge of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California
- J. Warren Madden, Judge of the United States Court of Claims ; also chair of the National Labor Relations Board and Medal of Freedom recipient
- Irvin Charles Mollison, Judge of the United States Customs Court
- Richard T. Morrison, Judge of the U.S. Tax Court
- Allin H. Pierce, Judge of the U.S. Tax Court
State government
Governors
- Dwight H. Green, 30th Governor of Illinois
- A. W. Norblad, 19th Governor of Oregon
- Abraham Ribicoff, 80th Governor of Connecticut ; also 4th Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and U.S. Senator
- Ingram Stainback, 9th Governor of Hawaii
- Matthew E. Welsh, 41st Governor of Indiana
State politicians
- Miriam Balanoff, member of the Illinois House of Representatives ; also Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois
- Jack E. Bowers, member of the Illinois House of Representatives and of the Illinois Senate
- John C. Brooks, North Carolina Commissioner of Labor
- Allen Busby, member of the Wisconsin State Senate
- Clarence C. Caldwell, 9th Attorney General of South Dakota
- John E. Cashman, member of the Wisconsin State Senate
- John William Chapman, 37th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois
- Lycurgus Conner, member of the Illinois House of Representatives
- Robert E. Coulson, member of the Illinois House of Representatives and member of the Illinois Senate
- Richard W. DeKorte, member of the New Jersey General Assembly
- Peter Diamondstone, co-founder of the Liberty Union Party
- Thurlow Essington, member of the Illinois Senate
- Benjamin M. Flowers, 10th Solicitor General of Ohio
- John A. Gale, 26th Secretary of State of Nebraska
- Don Harmon, president pro tempore of Illinois Senate
- F. Badger Ives, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
- Dan Liljenquist, member of the Utah State Senate
- Nathan J. Kaplan, member of the Illinois House of Representatives
- Mary Anne Krupsak, 80th Lieutenant Governor of New York
- Rob McKenna, 17th Attorney General of Washington
- George D. Mills, member of the Illinois Senate
- Jonathan Mitchell, 5th Solicitor General of Texas
- Eric E. Murphy, 9th Solicitor General of Ohio ; also Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- Chris Nybo, member of the Illinois Senate and member of the Illinois House of Representatives
- Myron Orfield,, member of the Minnesota Senate and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
- Gertrude Polcar, member of the Ohio House of Representatives
- Jesse H. Ruiz, Deputy Governor of Illinois for Education and chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education
- J. Clinton Searle, member of the Illinois House of Representatives
- Ken Simpler, State Treasurer of Delaware
- Michele Smith, member of the Chicago City Council
- Zack Stephenson, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
- Calvin Sutker, member of the Illinois House of Representatives and member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners
- William Tong, member of the Connecticut House of Representatives
- A. Andrew Torrence, member of the Illinois House of Representatives
- Mark Tremmel, member of the Iowa House of Representatives
- Edward Vrdolyak, member and later president of the Chicago City Council
- Rob Witwer, member of the Colorado House of Representatives
- Tremaine Wright, member of the New York State Assembly
State judges
- Donald G. Alexander, Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court
- Thomas A. Balmer, Associate Justice and formerly Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
- Richard Bandstra, Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals ; also member of the Michigan House of Representatives
- Tim Bradbury, Judge of the King County Superior Court
- William H. Bright Jr., Judge of the Connecticut Appellate Court
- William C. Christianson, Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court ; also judge of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals
- Charles H. Davis, Justice and later Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court and Justice and two-time Presiding Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court
- Christopher L. Garrett, Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
- Luther Marcellus Goddard, Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court
- E. Harold Hallows, Justice and later Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
- Harry B. Hershey, Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court
- Constandinos Himonas, Associate Justice of the Utah Supreme Court
- George M. Joseph, Chief Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals
- Warren Jones, Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court
- Scott L. Kafker, Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and of the Massachusetts Appeals Court
- Thomas E. Kluczynski, Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court
- Thomas Rex Lee, Associate Justice of the Utah Supreme Court
- David Minge, Judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals ; also member of the U.S. Representative
- Edward Nakamura, Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii
- Lisa Neubauer, Judge and currently Chief Judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals
- Susan Phillips Read, Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
- Mark E. Recktenwald, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii
- Beth Robinson, Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
- George Rossman, Associate Justice and later Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
- Walter V. Schaefer, Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court
- Hardress Nathaniel Swaim, Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court ; also Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Paul Thissen, Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
- Wilfred Tsukiyama, Justice and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii
- Dale Wainwright, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas
City government
- Miriam Balanoff, Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois ; also member of the Illinois House of Representatives
- Andy Berke, 73rd Mayor of Chattanooga and member of the Tennessee Senate
- Hugo Friend, Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois
- Hugh Hallman, Mayor of Tempe, Arizona
- Lori Lightfoot, 47th Mayor of Chicago
- Mary V. Mochary, 9th Mayor of Montclair
- Watkins Overton, 42nd and longest-serving Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee
- James P. Pope, 35th Mayor of Boise, Idaho ; also U.S. Senator
- Carol Ruth Silver, member of San Francisco Board of Supervisors ; also civil rights activist and Freedom Rider
U.S. diplomatic figures
- Carol Moseley Braun, U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and U.S. Ambassador to Samoa ; also U.S. Senator
- John B. Emerson, U.S. Ambassador to Germany
- Mary Ann Glendon, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See ; also professor at Harvard Law School
- James Hormel, 17th U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg
- Robert Todd Lincoln, U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom ; also 35th United States Secretary of War
Other U.S. political figures
- Cyrus Amir-Mokri, Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Treasury Department
- Greg Andres, Assistant Special Counsel for Russian interference in 2016 United States elections
- Brian P. Brooks, acting Comptroller of the Currency
- Lisa Brown, White House Staff Secretary, also chief legal counsel to Georgetown University
- William Holmes Brown, Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York ; also partner of Latham & Watkins
- Henry P. Chandler, director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts
- Benjamin V. Cohen, advisor and member of the administrations of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
- James Cole Jr., Acting Deputy Secretary of Education
- Richard Cordray, 1st Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ; also 49th Attorney General of Ohio, 46th Treasurer of Ohio and Solicitor General of Ohio
- Roger C. Cramton, chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States and assistant U.S. attorney general
- Kenneth W. Dam, 8th U.S. Deputy Secretary of State ; also U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, current senior fellow of the Brookings Institution and the Max Pam Professor Emeritus of American & Foreign Law at the law school
- Isaiah Sol Dorfman, agent of the Office of Strategic Services and labor lawyer
- Jon Dudas, Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- Gary Edson, Deputy National Security Advisor
- Troy Eid, U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado
- Curtis E. Gannon, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
- John Alvin Johnson, General Counsel of the Air Force and general counsel of NASA
- David A. Kessler, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration ; also Dean of the Yale School of Medicine and Dean of the University of California, San Francisco Medical School
- Wan J. Kim, Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice
- David Ladd, 10th Register of Copyrights and U.S. Commissioner of Patents
- Jewel Lafontant, Deputy U.S. Solicitor General and representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations ; also first African-American woman to graduate from the law school
- Daniel Levin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
- James A. Lewis, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois
- William P. MacCracken Jr., first U. S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics
- Roswell Magill, Chief Attorney in the U.S. Treasury Department
- Maureen Mahoney, Deputy U.S. Solicitor General ; also partner of Latham & Watkins
- Scott Milne Matheson Sr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah
- Kevin McAleenan, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- Richard H. Newhouse Jr., member of the Illinois Senate
- Sheila Nix, chief of staff to Jill Biden, wife of 47th Vice President Joe Biden
- Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
- Margaret Peterlin, Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson ; also senior vice president of global external and public affairs at AT&T
- Mythili Raman, acting Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division
- Kyle Sampson, chief of staff and counselor of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
- James Santelle, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
- Hal S. Scott, Director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation; also governor of the American Stock Exchange and professor at Harvard Law School
- Melanie Sloan, founder and executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and counsel for the House Judiciary Committee
- Mary L. Smith, principal deputy director and acting agency head of the Indian Health Service
- Cheryl Stanton, administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor
- Karl R. Thompson, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
- Jeff Wall, principal deputy U.S. Solicitor General and acting Acting U.S. Solicitor General
- J. Ernest Wilkins Sr., assistant Secretary of Labor
Non-United States government
Non-United States political figures
- Herman De Croo, President of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and longest-serving member of the Belgian Federal Parliament
- Mei Ju-ao, chief of the Chinese Ministry of Justice ; also member of judges of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
- Alexander Krasnoshchyokov, head of the Far Eastern Republic
- David Libai, member of the Knesset and Israeli Minister of Justice
- Geoffrey Palmer, 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Uriel Reichman, member of the Knesset ; also dean of the Tel Aviv University law faculty and founder and president of Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya
- Shimon Shetreet, member of the Knesset
- Alain Zenner, member of Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region and senator
Non-United States judicial figures
- Shimon Agranat, President of the Supreme Court of Israel
- Kwamena Bentsi-Enchill, judge and academic; justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana
- Robert Carswell, Baron Carswell, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Lord Justice of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland
- Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
Notable attorneys
- Frederick B. Abramson, president of the District of Columbia Bar
- Katherine L. Adams, general counsel of Apple Inc.
- Robert Barnett, partner of Williams & Connolly
- Laird Bell, philanthropist, attorney and co-founder of Bell, Boyd & Lloyd LLP, now K&L Gates
- Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro
- Frank Cicero Jr., partner of Kirkland & Ellis
- Patrick M. Collins, partner of King & Spalding
- Roberta Cooper Ramo, first female president of the American Law Institute and first female president of the American Bar Association
- Earl B. Dickerson, prominent attorney and community activist and first African-American graduate of the law school
- Howard Ellis, name partner of Kirkland & Ellis
- Bruce Ennis, founder of the law firm Ennis, Friedman, Bersoff & Ewing, which merged into Jenner & Block
- Ted Frank, leading class actions attorney and founder and president of the Center for Class Action Fairness
- Edward de Grazia, attorney involved in numerous high-profile cases of literary and artistic censorship in the 1960s; also founding member of faculty at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
- Paul Grewal, vice-president and deputy general counsel of Facebook ; also Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Chris Hansen, civil rights attorney, notable for litigating U.S. Supreme Court cases AMP v. Myriad Genetics and ACLU v. Reno
- David H. Hoffman, partner of Sidley Austin and lecturer at the law school
- Lillian Johnson, civil justice advocate and director of National Legal Aid & Defender Association
- Leon L. Lewis, inaugural national secretary of the Anti-Defamation League
- Carl J. Mayer, founder of the Mayer Law Group LLC
- Susan M. Moss, partner of Chemtob Moss Forman & Beyda LLP
- Francis Neate, president of the International Bar Association ; also retired English cricketer
- Matthew Parish, managing partner of Gentium Law Group
- Gerald Ratner, co-founder of Gould & Ratner
- Eugene Scalia, partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
- Harry Schneider, partner of Perkins Coie
- Stephen S. Schwartz, partner of Schaerr Duncan LLP
- William Spade, noted criminal defense attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Fay Stender, attorney and representative of Black Panther leader Huey Newton, the Soledad Brothers and Black Guerrilla Family founder George Jackson
- Jean Stoffregen, racial equality lawyer for the Fellowship of Reconciliation
- Ted Ullyot, partner of Andreessen Horowitz and former general counsel of Facebook
- Junayed Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Partner of Vertex Chambers
Academia
University presidents and faculty deans
- Alfred Avins, co-founder of the Delaware Law School
- Morris B. Abram, president of Brandeis University ; also civil rights activist and attorney
- Alfred C. Aman, Jr., dean of Indiana University School of Law and Suffolk University Law School
- William Birenbaum, president of Antioch College
- King Virgil Cheek, president of Shaw University and of Morgan State University
- Roger C. Cramton, dean of Cornell Law School ; also inaugural chairman of the Legal Services Corporation
- John C. Eastman, dean of the Chapman University School of Law
- Christopher L. Eisgruber, president of Princeton University
- Ward Farnsworth, dean of University of Texas School of Law
- William Ray Forrester, dean of Vanderbilt University Law School, Tulane University Law School and Cornell Law School
- Jim Huffman, dean of Lewis & Clark Law School and the Republican nominee in the 2010 U.S. Senate election in Oregon
- Herma Hill Kay, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law
- David A. Kessler, dean of the Yale School of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco Medical School
- Larry Kramer, dean of Stanford Law School ; also president of the Hewlett Foundation
- William H. Leary, dean of the University of Utah College of Law
- Rex E. Lee, president of Brigham Young University ; also 37th U.S. Solicitor General
- Henry Manne, dean emeritus of the George Mason University School of Law
- Dallin H. Oaks, president of Brigham Young University ; also president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
- Robert K. Rasmussen, dean of the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California
- Uriel Reichman, dean of the Tel Aviv University law faculty and founder and president of Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya ; also member of the Knesset
- Peter B. Rutledge, dean of University of Georgia School of Law
- D. Gordon Smith, dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University
- Barbara Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University
- Geoffrey R. Stone, dean and interim dean of the law school; Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the law school; leading First Amendment scholar
Scholars
- Avi Bell, professor at the University of San Diego and at Bar-Ilan University and property law scholar
- Carlton Bailey, professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law
- Dale Carpenter, professor at SMU Dedman School of Law
- Marvin Chirelstein, professor at Columbia Law School and at Yale Law School
- Martha Davis, professor at Northeastern University
- John F. Duffy, professor at the University of Virginia School of Law
- Nancy Feldman, professor of sociology at the University of Tulsa; also civil rights activist
- Martha Field, professor at Harvard Law School
- Martha Albertson Fineman, professor at Emory University School of Law, scholar of feminist legal theory and critical legal theory, and founder and director of the Feminism and Legal Theory Project
- James Fleissner, professor at the Walter F. George School of Law of Mercer University
- George P. Fletcher, professor at Columbia Law School
- Ernst Fraenkel, German political scientist and one of the founding fathers of German political science after World War II
- James Friedman, professor at the University of Maine School of Law
- Lawrence M. Friedman, professor at Stanford Law School and scholar on American legal history
- Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, professor of sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY
- Scott Gaille, lecturer at the law school and energy law scholar
- Marc Galanter, professor emeritus at University of Wisconsin School of Law and scholar on law and society
- Stephen Gard, professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
- Michael Gerhardt, professor at the UNC School of Law, Special Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the nominations of Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court
- Mary Ann Glendon, professor at Harvard Law School; also U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See
- Kent Greenfield, professor at the Boston College Law School
- Robert Hamilton, Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law
- Angela P. Harris, professor at UC Davis School of Law and scholar on critical race theory, feminist legal theory, and criminal law
- John N. Hazard, professor at Columbia University and scholar on Soviet law
- Paul J. Heald, professor at the University of Illinois College of Law; also novelist
- Gail Heriot, professor at the University of San Diego School of Law
- Dennis J. Hutchinson, professor at the College of the University of Chicago, senior lecturer at the law school, and editor of the Supreme Court Review
- James B. Jacobs, professor at New York University School of Law
- Phillip E. Johnson, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law and founder of the intelligent design movement
- Harry Kalven, Harry A. Bigelow Professor of Law at the law school and First Amendment scholar
- Leo Katz, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Michael Knoll, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Holning Lau, professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law
- Douglas Laycock, professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and scholar on the law of religious liberty and on remedies
- Wesley Liebeler, professor at the University of California and at the George Mason University School of Law
- James Lindgren, professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
- Thomas W. Merrill, professor at Columbia Law School
- William R. Ming, professor at the law school and at Howard University
- Myron Orfield, professor at the University of Minnesota Law School
- Daniel L. Nagin, clinical professor at Harvard Law School
- Sol Picciotto, professor at Lancaster University
- Lucy Reed, director of the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore
- David L. Paulsen, professor at Brigham Young University
- Lorinda Perry, head of political and social sciences department at Rockford College and professor at University of Illinois
- George L. Priest, professor at Yale Law School
- Larry Ribstein, professor at George Mason University School of Law and corporate law scholar
- Carol M. Rose, professor at Yale Law School and at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona and property law scholar
- Lawrence Rosen , professor at Princeton University and anthropologist
- Joseph Sax, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law and at the University of Michigan Law School, environmental law scholar, and developer of the public trust doctrine
- Peter Schlechtriem, professor at the University of Heidelberg and German legal scholar
- Suzanna Sherry, professor at Vanderbilt University Law School and constitutional law scholar
- Bernard Siegan, professor at the University of San Diego School of Law and libertarian legal theorist
- Robert Sitkoff, professor at Harvard Law School and scholar on trusts and estates
- Barry Sullivan, professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law
- William Twining, professor at University College London and scholar on jurisprudence
- David Vaver, professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and at the University of Oxford
- Stephen Wizner, clinical professor at Yale Law School
- Franklin Zimring, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law and scholar on the criminal justice system
Business and non-profit
- Michael Alter, president of the Alter Group and principal owner and chairman of WNBA team Chicago Sky
- Jeffrey Anderson, executive vice president of Game Show Network
- Maggie Anderson, CEO and co-founder of the Empowerment Experiment; also civil rights activist
- J. Calvin Brown, 70th president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
- Debra Cafaro, chairman and CEO of Ventas, Inc.
- Bradley M. Campbell, president of Conservation Law Foundation
- Norton Clapp, president and chairman of Weyerhaeuser and president of Boy Scouts of America
- Christopher DeMuth, distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute and president of the American Enterprise Institute
- Daniel L. Doctoroff, CEO and president of Bloomberg L.P. and CEO of Sidewalk Labs
- Daniel Fischel, chairman and president of Compass Lexecon; also Lee and Brena Freeman Professor Emeritus of Law and Business and senior lecturer at the law school
- Paul D. Ginsberg, president of Roark Capital Group
- James Goodale, vice-president, general counsel and vice-chairman for The New York Times
- Gary Haugen, founder, CEO, and former president of International Justice Mission
- Gene Healy, vice-president of the Cato Institute and contributing editor to Liberty magazine
- Wayne Hsiung, co-founder of animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere
- Cary Kochman, co-head of Global Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Citigroup
- Luis Kutner, co-founder of Amnesty International and inventor of the living will
- Ralph Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, president and CEO of People For the American Way, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care, and president and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association
- Robert Peach, founder of Mohawk Airlines
- Margaret Peterlin, senior vice president of global external and public affairs at AT&T ; also Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson
- Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare
- Donald Pritzker, entrepreneur and president of Hyatt Hotels Corporation
- Nicholas J. Pritzker, chairman and CEO of the Hyatt Development Corporation
- Thomas Pritzker, executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation
- Marcus Raskin, co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies; also professor at George Washington University
- Andrew M. Rosenfield, CEO and managing partner of TGG Group and managing partner of Guggenheim Partners
- David M. Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group
- David O. Sacks, founding COO and product leader at PayPal, founder and CEO of Yammer, and founder and partner of Craft Ventures
- Adam Silver, 5th commissioner of the National Basketball Association
- James A. Squires, president and CEO of Norfolk Southern Railway
- Paul Toback, CEO and chairman of Bally Total Fitness
- Bradley Tusk, founder and CEO of Tusk Holdings; also campaign manager for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's successful 2009 re-election bid, Deputy Governor of Illinois, and communications director for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer
- David Wendell Phillips, angel investor in Silicon Valley, CEO of Crunch Music and CEO and founder of NaturalPath Media
- Joseph T. Zoline, founder and developer of Telluride Ski Resort
- Barry Zubrow, former Chief Administrative Officer of Goldman Sachs, former Chief Risk Officer of JPMorgan Chase and Darelyn A. & Richard C. Reed Lecturer in Law at the law school
Media, journalism and writing
- Mitchell Dawson, writer and poet
- Julian Dibbell, author on social systems in online communities and technology journalist
- Larry Downes, internet industry analyst and author on business strategies and information technology
- Steve Fiffer, author of Three Quarters, Two Dimes, and a Nickel and Guggenheim Fellow
- David Fromkin, author of A Peace to End All Peace; also professor of history and international relations at Boston University
- Alan Gordon, author of historical mysteries
- Jan Crawford Greenburg, political correspondent and chief legal correspondent for CBS News and commentator on the U.S. Supreme Court
- Claire Hartfield, author of history-inspired novels and winner of Coretta Scott King Award
- Josh Hammer, opinion editor for Newsweek
- Linda Hirshman, author on women's rights
- Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ
- Nell Minow, film critic and corporate governance expert
- Mary Nissenson, journalist on NBC News and reporter for WBBM-TV in Chicago ; also the first female president of the law students' association at the law school
- Andrew Patner, journalist for The Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Sun-Times
- Studs Terkel, author and winner of Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
- James Thayer, author of thriller novels
Activism
- Morris B. Abram, civil rights activist and attorney; also president of Brandeis University
- Maggie Anderson, activist and CEO and co-founder of the Empowerment Experiment
- Sophonisba Breckinridge, activist, Progressive Era social reformer, and the first woman to graduate from the law school
- Earl B. Dickerson, prominent attorney and community activist and first African-American graduate of the law school
- Nancy Feldman, civil rights activist; also professor of sociology at the University of Tulsa
- Truman Gibson, civil rights activist and influential boxing promoter
- Staughton Lynd, prominent civil rights activist; also professor at Yale University
- Carol Ruth Silver, civil rights activist and Freedom Rider; also member of San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Other
- Eric Friedler, retired U.S. professional tennis player
- James Steven Ginsburg, music producer, founder and president of Cedille Records, and son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Eric Gurry, actor, best known for his roles in such films and plays as Bad Boys, Author! Author! and The Floating Light Bulb
- Courtney Hall, professional football player for the San Diego Chargers
- Brooks Johnson, American track athlete and coach and gold medallist at the 1963 Pan American Games
- Francis Neate, retired English cricketer; also president of the International Bar Association
- Dallin H. Oaks, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ; also president of Brigham Young University
- Spencer Short, poet; also attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Jim Tanner, sports and entertainment agent
- John F. Tobin, American college football player for the Chicago Maroons and the Nebraska Cornhuskers and coach of Tulane Green Wave.