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Marc D. Falkoff

Marc D. Falkoff

Dean, Law School

Department

  • Law School Administrators and Staff

Contact Information

Biography

Marc D. Falkoff is Dean of Capital University Law School. He teaches courses in civil rights, constitutional law, and criminal law and procedure. His research interests are primarily in legal education and the operationalization of rule-of-law values.

Prior to joining Capital in 2026, Dean Falkoff had been on the faculty of Northern Illinois University College of Law for two decades. While at NIU he served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and helped found the Prisoners’ Rights Project, becoming its Director in 2022. For the 2025–2026 academic year, he was a Visiting Professor at Rutgers Law School, assisting in the development of the school’s bar-success program.

From 2004 to 2024, Dean Falkoff represented more than a dozen prisoners held by the U.S. military at Guantánamo Bay on suspicion of involvement with terrorism. For this work, he was named the Charles F.C. Ruff Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in 2005 by Covington & Burling, where he was a Litigation Associate. He received the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award in 2007 from the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Bill of Rights in Action Award in 2008 from the Constitutional Rights Foundation in Chicago. The book of prisoner poetry he edited—Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak—was a bestselling anthology that has been translated into a dozen languages. Following law school, he clerked for Judges Carlos F. Lucero of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and Jack B. Weinstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He served as a Special Master in the Eastern District from 2003 to 2004.

Dean Falkoff is admitted to practice in New York, Illinois, and the District of Columbia, as well as numerous federal courts.

Degrees
  • J.D., Columbia Law School
  • Ph.D., Brandeis University
  • Ed.D., Northern Illinois University
  • M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • B.A., University of Pennsylvania
Expertise
  • Civil rights
  • Criminal law
  • Criminal procedure
  • Federal courts
  • Habeas corpus
  • Post-conviction remedies
  • Legal education
Scholarship

Law Review Articles, Chapters, and Books

  • Building Diversity Pathways from Community College to Law School, 75 Journal Legal Education _ (forthcoming).
  • Reflections on Poems from Guantánamo, in Remaking the Exceptional: Tracing Torture, Justice and Reparations (DePaul Art Museum, 2022).
  • An Empirical Critique of JCAR and the Legislative Veto in Illinois, 65 DePaul Law Review 949 (2016).
  • The Legislative Veto in Illinois: Why JCAR Review of Agency Rulemaking is Unconstitutional, 47 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 1055 (2016).
  • “Where is the World to Save Us from Torture?”: The Poets of Guantánamo, in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Human Rights (Routledge, 2016).
  • Thoughts on American Legal Education: Past, Present and Future, 23 Chosun Law Journal 3 (2016).
  • The Hidden Costs of Habeas Delay, 83 University of Colorado Law Review 339 (2012).
  • Habeas, Informational Asymmetries, and the War on Terror, 41 Seton Hall Law Review 1361 (2011) (with Jon Connolly).
  • Bagram, Boumediene, and Limited Government, 59 DePaul Law Review 851 (2010) (with Robert Knowles).
  • Back to Basics: Habeas Corpus Procedures and Long-Term Executive Detention, 86 Denver University Law Review 961 (2009).
  • Torture and Habeas Corpus as Information-Forcing Devices, 29 Northern Illinois University Law Review 425 (2009).
  • This Is To Whom It May Concern: A Guantánamo Narrative, 1 DePaul Journal for Social Justice 153 (2008), reprinted in Guantánamo: Inside a Prison, Outside the Law (NYU Press, 2009) and The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse (NYU Press, 2011).
  • Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak (University of Iowa Press, 2007) (editor).
  • Conspiracy to Commit Poetry: Empathetic Lawyering at Guantánamo Bay, 6 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 3 (Fall/Winter 2007).
  • Litigation and Delay at Guantánamo Bay, 10 New York City Law Review 393 (2007).
  • Toward a Limited-Government Theory of Extraterritorial Detention, 62 New York Univeristy Annual Survey of American Law 637 (2007) (with Robert Knowles).
  • Abrogating State Sovereign Immunity in Legislative Courts, 101 Columbia Law Review 853 (2001) (note).

Other Legal Writing

  • The Due Process Failings of Student Disciplinary Board Hearings, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (July 31, 2014).
  • Illinois Supreme Court Should Consider Reasonable Doubt Issue, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (June 25, 2014).
  • Fascinating Legal Questions Posed in Recent Criminal Law Cases, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (May 15, 2014).
  • Eavesdrop Law’s Demise Means Loss of Privacy, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Apr. 17, 2014).
  • Pro Bono Scholars Idea Could Enhance Legal Education, Provide Aid to Needy, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Mar. 26, 2014).
  • Overcorrecting Jury Instruction Errors, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Feb. 18, 2014).
  • Life Without Parole for Juveniles and the Retroactivity Mess, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Jan. 20, 2014).
  • Serious Discussions Needed on Police Tactics and False Confessions, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Dec. 26, 2013).
  • Investigative Alerts: Smart Policy or a Way to Skirt Warrants?, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Nov. 25, 2013).
  • Dictionary Blues: Judicial Reasoning Muddied by Definition Wrangling, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Oct. 24, 2013).
  • The Evolving Right to Counsel on State Post-Conviction Review, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Sept. 26, 2013).
  • The Oddly Perverse Consequences of Mandatory Sentencing Enhancements, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Aug. 19, 2013).
  • Afterthought Crimes and the Felony Murder Rule in Illinois, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (July 22, 2013).
  • Recording Police Interrogations Has Worked — And Should Be Expanded,Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (May 29, 2013).
  • “Attempted Threat” Crimes and Oduwole, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Apr. 23, 2013).
  • A Death at Gitmo, Los Angeles Times (Sept. 20, 2012).
  • No Room Left For Doubt: More Revelations about Guantánamo, Jurist (Jan. 19, 2009).
  • Guantánamo in the Supreme Court: Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back, N. Ill. U. C. L. (Mar. 2008).
  • Politics at Guantánamo: The Former Chief Prosecutor Speaks, Jurist (Nov. 2, 2007).
  • Verses of Suffering, Amnesty International Magazine, Fall 2007 (cover story), reprinted in Viewpoints: Readings Worth Thinking and Writing About (7th ed. 2009).
  • Booker: A Sea-Change in Federal Sentencing?, N.Y. L.J., (Jan. 21, 2005)(with Alan Vinegrad).