Professor Brian Slocum, PhD, received the unanimous support of McGeorge’s Distinguished Professor of Law Advisory Committee to become McGeorge’s next Distinguished Professor of Law.

Dr. Slocum, a recognized expert in statutory interpretation and the application of linguistics to legal interpretation, is a prolific author whose work increasingly reflects a commitment to interdisciplinary and empirical approaches. Among his most notable recent works are Statutory Interpretation from the Outside (with Kevin Tobia and Victoria Nourse) in press with the Columbia Law Review, which is the first empirical study of ordinary meaning as determined by ordinary people, and The Meaning of Sex: Dynamic Words, Novel Applications, and Original Public Meaning, published in the Michigan Law Review and co-authored with Yale Law Professor William N. Eskridge and UC Santa Barbara Linguistics Professor Stefan Th. Gries.

Slocum is among one of the most cited faculty members at McGeorge, and he has had his work cited by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits. He has also been invited to speak at Yale Law School; St. Catherine’s College, Oxford; the University of Chicago; Stanford Law School; and Cambridge University.

Professor Slocum’s excellence also extends to the classroom. He has twice been voted Professor of the Year by McGeorge students, once by students in the day division and once by the evening students. He teaches Contracts, Statutes & Regulations, and Evidence.

“This is a case of the title catching up to the reputation,” said Michael Hunter Schwartz, Dean of McGeorge School of Law, “Brian Slocum is a respected scholar and a beloved teacher. He is distinguished in every sense of the word.”

Professor Brian Slocum earned his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School, and he has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of California, Davis.