Scott J. Shapiro joined the Michigan faculty after 9 years at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. In 2002-2003, he was a visiting professor at the Yale Law School and the following year was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Professor Shapiro received his bachelor's degree from Columbia College, his law degree from Yale, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. During graduate school, he worked as a volunteer attorney at the Center for Battered Women's Legal Services in New York City. Professor Shapiro received the Gregory Kavka award for best published article in political philosophy for the two-year period 1998-1999 from the American Philosophical Association and is the editor (with Jules Coleman) of The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and the Philosophy of Law. Professor Shapiro holds a joint appointment with the Law School and the Philosophy Department.

Shapiro left Michigan Law in 2008 to join the Yale Law faculty.