David L. Faigman, John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law
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Mailing Address: Science and Law Weblog |
Courses Taught: Constitutional Law II (SP 2008); Scientific Method for Lawyers (SP 2008); Constitutional Law I (F 2006); Science in the Law Seminar (SP 2006) Expertise: Constitutional Law-Fed, Science and Law, Evidence.
Professor Faigman was born and raised in Yonkers, New York, and attended the State University of New York, College at Oswego. After living two years away from academia, he fled back to those safe confines never to fully emerge again. He began his graduate education in the Psychology Department at the University of Virginia where he received an M.A. in social psychology. He then moved on to the law school at Virginia where he received a J.D. At the law school, he served on the Virginia Law Review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and received the Roger and Madeleine Traynor Prize, awarded to acknowledge the best written work by a graduating student. During and immediately after law school, Professor Faigman summer associated with the firms of Sherman & Sterling in New York and Vinson & Elkins in Houston. Realizing that law practice would never match his summer experience, he decided to work the year after law school in the semi-academic environs of the chambers of the Honorable Thomas M. Reavley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. After his clerkship, and upon the realization that he was not going to be nominated to the Fifth Circuit - but still seeking a position that would match his experience as a summer associate - Professor Faigman accepted a position at Hastings.
Professor Faigman writes in the areas of science and the law, and constitutional law. He has published numerous articles concerning the use, or failure to use, scientific research in legal decision-making. His most recent book was published in 2004, entitled Laboratory of Justice: The Supreme Court's 200-Year Struggle to Integrate Science and the Law. He is also the author of Legal Alchemy: The Use and Misuse of Science in the Law (1999), and is a coauthor of the four-volume treatise, Modern Scientific Evidence: The Law and Science of Expert Testimony (2005) (with David Kaye, Michael Saks, Joseph Sanders, and Ed Cheng). The treatise has been cited widely by courts, including several times by the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Faigman also lectures widely to judges and lawyers, and served on a panel for the National Academies of Science investigating the scientific validity of the polygraph.
Professor Faigman enjoys a wide range of diversions, including racquetball, golf, reading, and landscaping.
Distinguished Professorships are established in perpetuity by benefactors seeking to provide resources to bring to campus nationally prominent faculty. The professorships may carry the donor's name or the name of someone the donor wishes to honor. They are awarded by the faculty and the Board of Directors to individuals who are recognized leaders in their fields.