Nicholas Stephanopoulos is an American legal scholar who is the
Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
.
His scholarship primarily focuses on election law, constitutional law, and the interplay between law and democracy.
Recognized as a leading expert in election law, his work has been cited numerous times by the
United States Supreme Court. He has contributed significantly to the study of
partisan gerrymandering and is a co-founder of PlanScore, a platform for evaluating district plans. He co-invented the
efficiency gap, a metric used to measure potential gerrymandering in electoral systems, which quantifies the fairness of districting by calculating wasted votes.
In October 2022, Stephanopoulos was elected to the
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...
.
Early life and education
Stephanopoulos earned his AB in Government from
Harvard College, graduating ''summa cum laude''. He then obtained an M.Phil. in European Studies from
University of Cambridge, followed by a JD from
Yale Law School, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of International Law.
Legal career
Before his current position at Harvard, Stephanopoulos was a professor of law at the
University of Chicago Law School. He has also been an Associate-in-Law at
Columbia Law School and worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of
Jenner & Block LLP. Early in his career, he clerked for Judge
Raymond C. Fisher
Raymond Corley Fisher (July 12, 1939 – February 29, 2020) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Education and legal training
Fisher attended University High School, earned his Bachelor o ...
of the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Stephanopoulos has contributed to the
New York Times,
Washington Post,
Los Angeles Times,
Chicago Tribune,
The Atlantic,
The New Republic,
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
, and
Vox.
He has played a significant role in several high-profile litigation efforts, including the Supreme Court case
Gill v. Whitford. In the 2023 case
Allen v. Milligan
''Allen v. Milligan'' (Dockets 21–1086, 21–1087) is a pending United States Supreme Court case related to redistricting under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Background
Alabama's congressional districts have had roughly the same configurat ...
, the Supreme Court's decision heavily relied on an amicus brief submitted by the Election Law Clinic, representing Stephanopoulos and other scholars.
This brief was cited several times in the Court's opinion.
It provided empirical evidence about the effectiveness of Section 2 of the VRA and highlighted the potential consequences of undermining this provision, which aims to protect the electoral opportunities for communities of color.
Selected publications
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References
External links
Faculty Profile at Harvard Law SchoolPlanScore Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephanopoulos, Nicholas
Living people
American legal scholars
Harvard College alumni
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Yale Law School alumni
Harvard Law School faculty
University of Chicago Law School faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
NIH Director's New Innovator Award recipients