Anthony O'Rourke

Anthony O’Rourke teaches and writes on the intersections of criminal law and procedure, legislation, constitutional law, and legal theory. His scholarship draws on work in the social sciences and legal philosophy to identify links between legal doctrine and the institutional arrangements that structure legal decision-making and criminal legal systems. His writings have been published in the Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, the Georgia Law Review, the William & Mary Law Review, the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and other specialty journals. From 2017 to 2019, Professor O'Rourke was an Assistant Federal Defender for the Federal Defenders of New York while on leave of absence from the law school. He continues to litigate pro bono cases at the trial and appellate levels.

O’Rourke received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar. He clerked for Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Louis H. Pollak of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the School of Law faculty, O’Rourke also worked as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP, and as an associate-in-law at Columbia Law School. Before law school, he worked at the International Monetary Fund.

O’Rourke received his B.A. with high honors from the University of Michigan, where he majored in economics and philosophy.