Steven A. Drizin
Clinical Professor of Law Emeritus
Biography
Steven Drizin is a Clinical Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law where he has been on the faculty since 1991. He served as the Legal Director of the Clinic's renowned Center on Wrongful Convictions from March 2005 to September 2013. At the Center, Professor Drizin's research interests involved the study of false confessions and his policy work focuses on supporting efforts around the country to require law enforcement agencies to electronically record custodial interrogations. Drizin co-founded the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth (CWCY) in 2008, the first innocence organization to focus on representing defendants who were only teenagers when they were wrongfully convicted. Drizin and former student Laura Nirider, who co-directs the CWC, represent Brendan Dassey, a central figure in Netflix's smash docuseries Making a Murderer.
Areas of Expertise
- Clinical Teaching
- Juvenile Justice
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure
- Wrongful Convictions
Selected Publications
- Convicting Innocent Children: "I said I did it but I didn't do it", in Champions of Innocence: Inside the Fight Against Wrongful Convictions (Saul Kassin ed.,
forthcoming 2026 ). - Revisiting Lee Arthur Hester: A Case Study in False Confessions, in Confessions and Guilty Pleas of Youth: Developmental Science and Practical Implications (Lindsay C. Malloy, Rebbecca K. Helm & Tina M. Zottoli eds.,
2026 ). - Coercion, Trauma, and Grief in the Interrogation Room: Documenting and Analyzing Cases of False Confessions to Murder of a Family Member, 116 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 9 (2026) (Co-authored by: Richard A. Leo, Hayley M. D. Cleary & Samara Hoose).
- True Stories of False Confessions (Steven A. Drizin & Rob Warden eds.,
2009 ). - Are Juvenile Courts A Breeding Ground for Wrongful Convictions?, 34 Northern Kentucky Law Review 257 (2007) (Co-authored by: Greg Luloff).
- The Problem of False Confessions in the Post DNA World, 82 North Carolina Law Review 891 (2004) (Co-authored by: Richard A. Leo).
Education
- BA, Haverford College
- JD, Northwestern University
Prior Appointments
- Co-Director, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
- William M. Trumbull Clinical Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
- Clinical Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
- Assistant Dean, Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University School of Law
- Associate Director, Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University School of Law
- Director, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University School of Law
- Legal Director, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University School of Law
- Supervising Attorney, Children and Family Justice Center, Northwestern University School of Law
Recent Consulting Activities
- Expert Witness, Office of the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C.