Steven Lubet

Professor Lubet’s latest book is The Trials of Rasmea Odeh: How a Palestinian Guerrilla Gained and Lost U.S. Citizenship (GMU Press, 2021). He is also the author of The “Colored Hero” of Harper’s Ferry: John Anthony Copeland and the War against Slavery (Cambridge University Press, 2015), which tells the stories of the African-American abolitionists who joined John Brown’s attempt to free the slaves of Virginia. 

His other books include Interrogating Ethnography: Why Evidence Matters (Oxford University Press, 2017); John Brown’s Spy: The Adventurous Life and Tragic Confession of John E. Cook (Yale University Press, 2012), finalist for the Society of Midland Authors Biography Award;  Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial (Harvard University Press, 2010), honorable mention, Langum Prize for American Legal History; The Importance of Being Honest: How Lying, Secrecy and Hypocrisy Collide with Truth in Law (NYU Press, 2008); Lawyers’ Poker: 52 Lessons that Lawyers Can Learn from Card Players (Oxford University Press, 2006); Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp (Yale University Press, 2004); and Nothing But the Truth: Why Trial Lawyers Don’t, Can’t, and Shouldn’t Have to Tell the Whole Truth (NYU Press, 2001); among others.

Professor Lubet’s textbook, Modern Trial Advocacy (6th ed., 2020, with JC Lore), has been adopted by over 90 United States law schools, and has been translated or adapted for use in Japan, Canada, Israel, the Republic of China (Taiwan), the People’s Republic of China, and Chile.  Two of his other books have been translated into Portuguese and Korean.

Professor Lubet is the coauthor of Judicial Conduct and Ethics (with James Alfini, Charles Geyh, and Jeffrey Shaman), recognized as the nation’s leading authority on judicial ethics, which has been cited by numerous courts in over 40 state and federal jurisdictions. His other books include Evidence in Context, Exercises and Problems in Professional Responsibility, and Problems and Materials in Evidence and Trial Advocacy (all co-authored with Professor Robert Burns); Arbitration Advocacy (coauthored with John Cooley); and Expert Testimony: A Guide for Expert Witnesses and the Lawyers Who Examine Them (coauthored with Elizabeth Boals).

In addition to his scholarly writing, Professor Lubet’s humor and opinion pieces have appeared frequently on online platforms including Slate, Salon, the Daily Beast, CNN.com, Politico, The Hill, The Bulwark, The Conversation, The Forward, Washington Monthly, The American Lawyer, and NBCNews.com. His opeds have appeared in the pages of newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Detroit Free Press, and many others.

Professor Lubet has also written for medical, social science, and humanities journals. His satirical commentaries have been heard on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. 

He was once interviewed by Stephen Colbert for a segment on The Daily Show with John Stewart (in the early days, before they had important guests).