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Tobias Barrington Wolff
Professor of Law

Tobias Barrington Wolff
Professor of Law

Tel: 215.898.7471
Email: twolff@law.upenn.edu

Expertise

  • Civil Procedure
  • Complex Litigation
  • Conflict of Laws
  • Constitutional Law
  • Sexuality and the Law

Bio

Tobias Barrington Wolff writes and teaches in civil procedure and constitutional law. [More]
Tobias Barrington Wolff writes and teaches in civil procedure and constitutional law. In the field of procedure, Wolff has specialized in complex litigation and the conflict of laws, where he has articles in venues including the Columbia Law Review and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, along with a casebook -- Civil Procedure: Theory and Practice, co-authored with Professors Linda Silberman and Allan Stein -- that is now in its second edition. He has consulted in a number of major class action proceedings and currently sits on the Executive Committee of the AALS section on Conflict of Laws. In the field of constitutional law, Wolff has published articles and essays in venues including the Columbia Law Review, the Iowa Law Review and the Yale Law Journal, on topics including slavery and the Thirteenth Amendment, free speech and the First Amendment, and the rights of gay men and lesbians. He currently serves as a member of the Executive Board for the Equal Justice Society, an organization that seeks to translate the insights of the academy into progressive reforms in law and policy.

Wolff began his teaching career in 2000 at the University of California, Davis Law School, where he was awarded tenure and the title of full professor in the 2004-05 academic year. He was a visiting professor at Stanford Law School in 2003-04 and at Northwestern Law School in fall 2005. Before entering academia, Wolff clerked for Judges Betty Binns Fletcher and William A. Norris, both of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced for two years as a litigator at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York. He received both his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Yale, the former in 1992 and the latter in 1997.

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Representative Professional Positions

Penn Law – Professor of Law (2007 -); Visiting Professor (fall 2006)

University of California, Davis – Professor of Law (2004-07); Assistant Professor of Law (2000-04)

Visiting Professor – Northwestern; Stanford

Law Clerk to Judge Betty Binns Fletcher, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1997-98)

Law Clerk to Judge William A. Norris (retired Sept. 1997), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1997)

Representative Publications

Compelled Speech and Expressive Association: The Case of the Solomon Amendment, in THE BOY SCOUTS, GAY RIGHTS, AND THE FREEDOM TO ASSOCIATE (with ANDREW KOPPELMAN) (Yale Univ. Press, forthcoming 2008).

Expressive Association and the Ideal of the University in the Solomon Amendment Litigation, 25 SOC. PHIL. & POL'Y (forthcoming 2007) (with A. Koppelman).

Federal Jurisdiction and Due Process in the Era of the Nationwide Class Action, 156 U. PA. L. REV. (forthcoming 2007-08).

CIVIL PROCEDURE: THEORY AND PRACTICE (Aspen Publishers 2d ed., 2006) (with LINDA SILBERMAN & ALLAN STEIN).

Interest Analysis in Interjurisdictional Marriage Disputes, 153 U. PA. L. REV. (2005).

Preclusion in Class Action Litigation, 105 COLUM. L. REV. 717 (2005).

The Pimple on Adonis's Nose: A Dialogue on the Concept of Merit in the Affirmative Action Debate, 56 HASTINGS L.J. 379 (2005) (with Robert Paul Wolff).

Political Representation and Accountability Under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, 89 IOWA L. REV. 1633 (2004).

The Thirteenth Amendment and Slavery in the Global Economy, 102 COLUM. L. REV. 973 (2002).

Compelled Affirmations, Free Speech, and the U.S. Military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy, 63 BROOK. L. REV. 1141 (1997).

Principled Silence, 106 YALE L.J. 247 (1997) (Case Note, Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996)).

For additional publications, please consult
Current & Recent Research

Representative Professional Activities

Co-Counsel, Alaska Civil Liberties v. Alaska

Executive Board, The Equal Justice Society

 
Tobias Wolff

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • J.D. - Yale - '97
  • A.B. - Yale - '92

Courses Taught

  • Civil Procedure
  • Advanced Civil Procedure
  • Complex Litigation
  • Conflict of Laws
  • Constitutional Law
  • First Amendment
  • Law and Sexuality

Research Areas

  • Civil Procedure
  • Class Actions
  • Choice of Law and Multijurisdictional Disputes
  • Free Speech and the First Amendment
  • Slavery and the Constitution
  • The Rights of Gay Men and Lesbians

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