Professor of Law Brian Slocum, PhD, is an award-winning scholar and teacher with recognized expertise in administrative law, contracts, evidence, statutory interpretation, and the application of linguistics to legal interpretation. Professor Slocum is the author of “Ordinary Meaning: A Theory of the Most Fundamental Principle of Legal Interpretation” (University of Chicago Press, 2015), and the editor of “Inference, Intention and ‘Ordinary Meaning’: What jurists can learn about legal interpretation from linguistics and philosophy” (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and “Justice Scalia: Rhetoric and the Rule of Law” (University of Chicago Press, 2019). His numerous and frequently cited articles have been published in top journals, including Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Southern California Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Yale Journal of International Law, Ratio Juris, and Northwestern University Law Review.
Following his clerkship for Judge Frank Magill, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Professor Slocum joined the Department of Justice through its Honors Program. While at Justice, Professor Slocum argued more than a dozen appellate cases, wrote and reviewed criminal legislation, authored the Department’s guidance on various criminal matters to federal prosecutors throughout the country, lectured to federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents, and wrote a speech for the Attorney General and congressional testimony for the Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
In addition to a law degree, Professor Slocum holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Linguistics. His papers can be accessed on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).
Education
Ph.D. (Linguistics), University of California, Davis (2014)
J.D., Harvard University (1999)