Mitt Regan
McDevitt Professor of Jurisprudence
Mitt Regan is the McDevitt Professor of Jurisprudence and co-director of the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center. He is the author of several acclaimed books on legal ethics, including BigLaw, Eat What You Kill, and Confidence Games, which examine ethical issues in corporate and financial practice. Before joining Georgetown, he worked as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and clerked for Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the D.C. Circuit and Justice William J. Brennan Jr. on the Supreme Court.
Teaching Style
Professor Regan uses a case-based Socratic method enriched by his deep knowledge of how law firms and corporate practice actually work. He cold-calls students and challenges them to grapple with real ethical dilemmas that arise in transactional practice and litigation. His classes go beyond the black letter of professional responsibility rules to explore the organizational, cultural, and psychological dimensions of ethical decision-making in large law firms and corporations.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Read the Model Rules of Professional Conduct carefully and be prepared to apply them to complex hypotheticals
- 2Understand the business context of legal ethics issues, including law firm economics and corporate client pressures
- 3Be familiar with his books, especially BigLaw and Eat What You Kill, for real-world examples he draws upon in class
- 4Think about how organizational culture and incentive structures influence ethical behavior in legal practice
Areas of Expertise
Education
- J.D., Georgetown University Law Center
- M.A., University of California, Los Angeles
- B.A., University of Houston
Notable Publications
- BigLaw: Money and Meaning in the Modern Law Firm
- Eat What You Kill: The Fall of a Wall Street Lawyer
- Confidence Games: Lawyers, Accountants, and the Tax Shelter Industry
Research Interests
More Professors at Georgetown University Law Center
Constitutional Law, Contracts, Legal Theory
Constitutional Law, Criminal Justice, First Amendment, National Security Law
Information Privacy, Intellectual Property, Surveillance Law, Platform Regulation
Constitutional Law, International Law, National Security Law, Criminal Law and Procedure
Torts, Products Liability, Constitutional Torts, Legal Ethics
Business Law, Commercial Law, Economic Justice, Race and the Law