Gillian Metzger
Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law
Gillian Metzger is the Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, where she also serves as Faculty Director of the Center for Constitutional Governance. She received the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2014. In 2023-2024, she served as Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. Her scholarship on the constitutional duty to supervise won the American Bar Association's Administrative Law Section Annual Scholarship Award.
Teaching Style
Professor Metzger is a meticulous and highly organized lecturer who uses the Socratic method to walk students through complex administrative and constitutional frameworks step by step. She cold-calls regularly and expects precise answers grounded in statutory text and case law. Her teaching earned her the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and students describe her as demanding but deeply fair.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Master the statutory frameworks — Metzger expects you to cite specific provisions of the APA and relevant enabling statutes
- 2Be prepared to discuss the institutional design rationale behind administrative structures, not just the doctrinal rules
- 3Read the footnotes in assigned cases; she often asks about details buried in them
- 4Understand the relationship between constitutional principles (separation of powers, due process) and administrative law doctrines
Areas of Expertise
Education
- J.D., Columbia Law School
- B.Phil., University of Oxford
- B.A., Yale University
Notable Publications
- Gellhorn & Byse's Administrative Law: Cases and Comments (casebook, co-editor)
- The Constitutional Duty to Supervise (Columbia Law Review)
Research Interests
More Professors at Columbia Law School
Constitutional Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, First Amendment
Antitrust Law, Intellectual Property, Internet Law, Media Law
Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Political Theory, Punishment and Society
Property Law, Land Use, Real Estate Transactions
Computers, Privacy and the Law, Legal History, Law in the Internet Society
Financial Regulation, Corporations, Banking Law, Securities Regulation