Who We Are

          Akhil Reed Amar is the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law. His work has won awards from the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than 36 cases. After clerking for Judge (now Justice) Stephen Breyer, he joined the Yale faculty at the age of 26. He frequently testifies before Congress at the behest of both political parties. He is the author of dozens of law-review articles and many award-winning books, including The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles (1997); The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction (1998); America’s Constitution: A Biography (2005); America’s Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By (2012); The Law of the Land: A Grand Tour of Our Constitutional Republic (2015); and The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era (2016). He is also coauthor of the influential casebook Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking (7th ed. 2018). Amar is Yale’s only current faculty member to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching excellence, and the Lamar Award for Alumni Service. Having also taught law Pepperdine, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania, he invariably ranks among the five most frequently cited midcareer legal scholars in the United States; a Legal Affairs poll placed him among the top 20 contemporary American legal thinkers.

          Philip C. Bobbitt is the Herbert Wechsler Professor of Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School, where he also directs the Center for National Security. He is one of the nation’s leading experts in constitutional interpretation, international security, and the history of strategy. After clerking for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the Second Circuit, Bobbitt served as Associate Counsel to President Jimmy Carter; the Counselor on International Law at the State Department; Legal Counsel to the Senate Select Iran-Contra Committee; Director for Intelligence Programs, the first Senior Director for Critical Infrastructure Protection and the Senior Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council; a member of the National Infrastructure Assurance Council; a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on International Law; and a member of the External Advisory Board of the CIA. He is the author of ten books, including Tragic Choices (1978, with Guido Calabresi); Constitutional Fate (1982); Democracy and Deterrence: The History and Future of Nuclear Strategy (1987); United States Nuclear Strategy (1989); Constitutional Interpretation (1992); The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History (2002); Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-first Century (2008); and The Garments of Court and Palace: Machiavelli and the World That He Made (2013). Bobbitt is also coauthor of the second editions of The Ages of American Law (2014, with Grant Gilmore) and of Impeachment: A Handbook (2018, with Charles L. Black Jr.). In addition to Columbia, Bobbitt has also taught at the University of Texas School of Law, Oxford University, Yale Law School, and Harvard Law School.

          Bryan A. Garner, president of LawProse Inc. and Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University, has been the editor in chief of the last five unabridged editions of Black’s Law Dictionary — the most frequently cited lawbook in the world. With the late Justice Antonin Scalia, he is coauthor of Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (2012), which has established itself as the leading book on textualism today. He has also written significant books on jurisprudence (The Law of Judicial Precedent [2016], with 12 appellate judges as coauthors); statutes (Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Legislation [2017]); contracts (Garner’s Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Contracts [2019]); English usage (Garner’s Modern English Usage [4th ed. 2016]); English grammar (The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation [2016] and The Chicago Manual of Style [ch. 5 in 15th through 17th eds.]); oral advocacy (The Winning Oral Argument [2011]); and written advocacy (The Winning Brief [3d ed. 2014]). His work has been cited by appellate courts in every jurisdiction in the United States. He is among the most frequently cited legal scholars in the world today. Garner coauthored two books with Justice Scalia, coauthored a book with two other members of the Supreme Court (Gorsuch and Kavanaugh JJ.), and had prefaces to his books written by two others (Ginsburg and Breyer JJ.). In addition to SMU, he has taught at the law schools of the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

          Our general counsel, Karolyne H. Cheng, has been a member of the patent bar since 2009. She has also served as general counsel for LawProse Inc. since 2010 and as associate editor of Black’s Law Dictionary over its past three unabridged editions. A principal at Garner & Garner LLP, Cheng brings more than 13 years’ experience representing clients in state and federal courts. She is a one-person brain trust who has helped many clients find their winning arguments.

          All queries to Lexegesis should be sent to her at kcheng@lexegesis.law. Or call her at (214) 691-8588.