Rate My Professor Emily Berman

Professor Emily Berman is Professor of Law, William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law, and Assistant Dean for Faculty Development at the University of Houston Law Center, appointments dating from 2023, 2024, and 2024 respectively. She received her A.B. in political science from Duke University in 1994, J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law in 2005—serving as Editor-in-Chief of the New York University Law Review—and LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law in 2011. Berman clerked for the Honorable John M. Walker Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2005 to 2006. She held positions as Counsel and Katz Fellow in the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice from 2007 to 2011, developing policy recommendations on national security and civil liberties. Prior to joining the University of Houston Law Center as Assistant Professor in 2014—advancing to Associate Professor in 2019 and full Professor in 2023—she taught as Visiting Assistant Professor at Brooklyn Law School from 2012 to 2014. She has also served as Visiting Professor at Washington University School of Law.

A constitutional scholar with expertise in executive power and national security law, Berman's scholarship addresses inadequate restraints on executive power, proposing mechanisms for checks, balances, and democratic accountability. Her research further examines technological changes outpacing legal protections in government surveillance, data privacy, big data, and Fourth Amendment searches. She teaches Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, National Security Law, and Foreign Affairs Law. Key publications include "Reimagining Surveillance Law," 2023 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1235; "Weaponizing the Office of Legal Counsel," 62 B.C. L. Rev. 515 (2021), winner of the 2020 Levin Center Award for Excellence in Oversight Research; "A Government of Laws and Not of Machines," 98 B.U. L. Rev. 1277 (2018), winner of the 2018 Southeast Association of Law Schools Call-for-Papers Award and cited in FISA Court decisions; "When Database Queries are Fourth Amendment Searches," 102 Minn. L. Rev. 577 (2017); and contributions to National Security Law (8th ed. 2024). Honors include the Royce R. Till Professorship from 2022 to 2024 and the 2019 University of Houston Law Center Student Bar Association Professor of the Year Award.