Cornell Law School has recruited five accomplished scholars and practitioners to join its faculty this academic year: Katherine Mims Crocker, professor of law; Joseph Schottenfeld, assistant professor of law; Robert A. MacKenzie, assistant clinical professor of law and director of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic; and Aliza Milner and Cameron Fogle, both clinical professors of law (Lawyering). Collectively, the new faculty bring expertise in constitutional law, civil procedure, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, and legal writing, expanding opportunities for students while reinforcing Cornell Law’s reputation for scholarly excellence and innovative legal education.

“Our new faculty represent the highest standards of research, classroom instruction, and clinical practice that will benefit our students and the legal profession for decades to come. We scoured the country for the best faculty who have their fingers on the pulse of the legal system and will guide our students to thrive in a rapidly changing legal landscape,” said Jens David Ohlin, Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law.

Katherine Mims Crocker

Among the new appointments, Katherine Mims Crocker joins Cornell Law as one of the nation’s most accomplished rising scholars of constitutional law and the federal courts. Her research explores constitutional litigation, judicial decision-making, civil rights, and state and local government law.

Before joining Cornell, Crocker served on the faculties of Texas A&M University School of Law and William & Mary Law School and was the inaugural faculty director of the Texas A&M Center on the Structural Constitution. Her scholarship has appeared in many of the country’s leading law reviews, including the Harvard Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and Duke Law Journal, and she is an affiliate of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center. Before entering academia, she practiced appellate litigation and clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, graduating first in her class.

“I’m so excited to be joining the Cornell Law School community,” Crocker said. “I’ve loved Cornell since I spent time here for volleyball camp in high school, and I’ve admired the faculty since I entered academia. I’m especially honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the Law School’s existing strengths in public law and procedure.”

“Katherine Mims Crocker, a leading scholar of federal courts and constitutional law, will inject a diversity of perspective into our nationally recognized constitutional law and public law group. She is the epitome of the scholar who, in Carl Becker’s famous phrase, dares to ‘think otherwise’ and who follows the law and the evidence wherever it may lead,” Ohlin said.

Joe Schottenfeld

Joe Schottenfeld, the Jia Jonathan Zhu & Ruyin Ruby Ye Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow, brings to Cornell Law a blend of scholarly achievement and civil rights litigation experience. Most recently a Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School, his research examines the relationships among civil procedure, judicial institutions, and civil rights. His scholarship has appeared in or is forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, and Stanford Law Review. Before entering academia, he litigated First and Fourteenth Amendment cases as assistant general counsel for the NAACP. Schottenfeld received his J.D. at Yale Law School and clerked for Judge Marsha Berzon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Aliza Milner

Aliza Milner joins Cornell’s Lawyering faculty after leading Syracuse University College of Law’s legal communication and research program. Her scholarship focuses on legal writing, judicial process, and legal pedagogy, and she serves as a lead article editor for Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD. Before entering academia, Milner served as assistant legal counsel to the governor of Maryland and completed three appellate clerkships for the Maryland judiciary.

Cameron Fogle

Cameron Fogle brings more than a decade of complex litigation experience to Cornell Law’s Lawyering program. Before teaching legal research, writing, and federal government contracts law at the University of Alabama School of Law, Fogle spent eleven years in private practice in Washington, D.C., with Holland & Knight and Arnold & Porter, where he focused on litigation involving federal government contracting, including bid protests and False Claims Act cases.

Robert MacKenzie

Robert A. MacKenzie joins Cornell Law as director of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic after serving as a clinical teaching fellow at New York University School of Law. Prior to that he practiced in the Capital Markets Group at Davis Polk & Wardwell. His teaching and research focus on entrepreneurship, corporate governance, securities regulation, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in legal practice and legal education, positioning him to expand opportunities for students interested in business law and innovation.

Together, these five new faculty members strengthen Cornell Law School across a broad range of disciplines and reflect the Law School’s continued commitment to excellence in teaching, scholarship, and clinical education.