Prof. Margo Schlanger has returned from a two-year leave during which she served as the presidentially appointed Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She joined the Law School faculty in fall 2009, bringing her expertise in civil rights, prison reform, torts, and empirical legal studies to the Law School; she also heads the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Previously, she had been a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and an assistant professor at Harvard University.

Prof. Schlanger earned her JD from Yale in 1993. While there, she served as book reviews editor of the Yale Law Journal and received the Vinson Prize. She then served as law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1993 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, she was a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, where she worked to remedy civil rights abuses by prison and police departments and earned two Division Special Achievement awards. Prof. Schlanger, a leading authority on civil rights issues and civil and criminal detention, served on the Vera Institute's blue ribbon Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons; she worked as an advisor on the development of proposed national standards implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and testified before the Prison Rape Elimination Commission. She also served as the reporter for the American Bar Association's revision of its Standards Governing the Legal Treatment of Prisoners, and as chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Law and the Social Sciences. As the head of civil rights and civil liberties for the Department of Homeland Security, she served as the Secretary's lead advisor on civil rights and civil liberties issues, testified before Congress, chaired the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities, served on the first U.S. Delegation to the UN Universal Periodic Review, and met with community leaders and groups across America to ensure that their perspectives regarding civil rights and homeland security were considered in the Department's policy process.

Visit Prof. Schlanger's homepage for more information.