Scott Dodson

Bio

An expert in civil procedure and federal courts, Professor Scott Dodson has published eight book titles, including The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Cambridge 2015, 2d ed. 2022) and New Pleading in the Twenty-First Century (Oxford 2013). He has written more than 120 shorter works appearing in Stanford Law Review, New York University Law Review, Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Review, American Journal of Comparative Law, American Journal of International Law, Law & Society Review, and Law & Social Inquiry, among others. His scholarly writings have been cited in more than forty-five court opinions, including by the Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin Supreme Courts, and the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits. His works have been downloaded more than 70,000 times, and he was listed in the top-10 most-cited civil-procedure scholars for 2010-2014 and 2016-2020. Professor Dodson is a frequent commentator in the news, including appearances on the 10:00 Nightly News, NPR Radio, and CNN Radio; quotes in various print media; and blogging stints at SCOTUSblog, SCOCAblog, Civil Procedure & Federal Courts Blog, and PrawfsBlawg. From 2021-2023, he hosted and produced the semimonthly podcast Litigation Briefs: Media Shorts on Law and Courts. In 2024, Professor Dodson was counsel of record for the petitioner in Harrow v. Department of Defense, winning a 9-0 reversal from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Selected Scholarship

• The Complexities of Consent to Personal Jurisdiction
  113 California Law Review 2025

• The Missing Millions: Cy Pres in Federal Securities Class Actions
  (with Joe Grundfest), 74 Emory Law Journal 1 2024

• Why Do In-State Plaintiffs Invoke Diversity Jurisdiction?
  Law & Social Inquiry 2023

• Rule 4 and Personal Jurisdiction
  99 Notre Dame Law Review 1 2023

• The Making of the Supreme Court Rules
  90 George Washington Law Review 866 2022

• Cooperativism in the American Adversarial Tradition
  40 Civil Justice Quarterly 283 2021

• Article III and the Political-Question Doctrine
  116 Northwestern University Law Review 681 2021

• Personal Jurisdiction in Comparative Context
  68 American Journal of Comparative Law 701 2020

• Plaintiff Personal Jurisdiction and Venue Transfer
  117 Michigan Law Review 1463 2019

• Beyond Bias in Diversity Jurisdiction
  69 Duke Law Journal 267 2019

• Personal Jurisdiction and Aliens
  116 Michigan Law Review 1205 (with Bill Dodge) 2018

• Should the Rules Committees Have an Amicus Role?
  104 Virginia Law Review 1 2018

• Personal Jurisdiction and Aggregation
  113 Northwestern University Law Review 1 2018

• A Negative Retrospective of Rule 23
  92 New York University Law Review 917 (symposium) 2017

• Jurisdiction and Its Effects
  105 Georgetown Law Journal 619 2017

• An Opt-In Option for Class Actions
  115 Michigan Law Review 171 2016

• The Gravitational Force of Federal Law
  164 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 703 2016

• Joint and Several Jurisdiction
  65 Duke Law Journal 1323 (with Phil Pucillo) 2016

• A Revolution in Jurisdiction
  THE LEGACY OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG, Ch. 9, Page 137 (Cambridge University Press) 2015

• Party Subordinance in Federal Litigation
  83 George Washington Law Review 1 2014

• Rethinking Extraordinary Circumstances
  106 Northwestern University Law Review 377 2012

• Hybridizing Jurisdiction
  99 California Law Review 1439 2011

• The Complexity of Jurisdictional Clarity
  97 Virginia Law Review 1 2011

• New Pleading, New Discovery
  109 Michigan Law Review 53 2010

• Comparative Convergences in Pleading Standards
  158 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 441 2010

• Mandatory Rules
  61 Stanford Law Review 1 2008

• In Search of Removal Jurisdiction
  102 Northwestern University Law Review 55 2008

• A Darwinist View of the Living Constitution
  61 Vanderbilt Law Review 1319 2008