Daniel Klerman

Edward G. Lewis Chair in Law and History, and Director, Center of Law & Social Science (CLASS)
Last Updated: January 26, 2024

Daniel Klerman teaches Civil Procedure, Property, Concepts in American Law, and English Legal History.

In 2014, he received the Student Bar Association (SBA) Faculty Appreciation (“Outstanding Professor”) Award.

Klerman’s scholarship concentrates on Civil Procedure, English Legal History, and Law and Economics. His publications include “Forum Selling” (Southern California Law Review, 2016) (with Greg Reilly), “Inferences from Litigated Cases,” (Journal of Legal Studies, 2014) (with Yoon-Ho Alex Lee) and “Jurisdictional Competition and the Evolution of the Common Law” (University of Chicago Law Review, 2007).

In 2004, he was awarded the Sutherland Prize from the American Society for Legal History for best article on English legal history. In 2001, he received the David Yale Prize from the Selden Society for distinguished contribution to the history of the laws and legal institutions of England and Wales.

Klerman served on the Board of Directors of the American Law & Economics Association from 2009-2012 and was co-president of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies in 2008-09. He is on the editorial boards of Law & History Review and Journal of Legal Analysis. He is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and served as USC Law’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs 2009-2011.

Klerman received his BA from Yale University and his JD and PhD in History from the University of Chicago. He clerked for The Honorable Richard A. Posner, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and for The Honorable John Paul Stevens, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. In addition to USC Gould School of Law, he has taught at the University of Chicago Law School, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, the California Institute of Technology, Sichuan University, Tel Aviv University Law School, and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.