Professor Randy Kozel Earns Tenure

Randy Kozel has been granted tenure as a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School. Kozel joined the law school faculty in 2011 and teaches and researches in the fields of constitutional law, federal courts, and contract law, with a particular focus on the role of precedent in legal decision-making.

He was named the Distinguished Professor of the Year by the NDLS class of 2014 and taught at the Notre Dame London Law Centre in 2013.

“Randy is a truly outstanding teacher, scholar, and colleague, and we are all delighted that his tenure application was successful,” said Dean Nell Jessup Newton.

His recent scholarship exploring the connection between precedent and interpretive philosophy has been published or is forthcoming in journals including the Michigan Law Review, the California Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Texas Law Review. His forthcoming book, “Settled Versus Right: A Theory of Precedent,” makes the case for using precedent to bridge interpretive disagreements.

“My family and I are so blessed to be part of the Notre Dame community. This truly has become our home," Kozel said.

Kozel served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has also practiced as a litigator with a large law firm and as special counsel to the general counsel at General Electric Co.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was the articles committee chair of the Harvard Law Review.