Nancy S. Marder

Professor Nancy Marder is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on the jury. Her most recent book, The Power of the Jury: Transforming Citizens into Jurors, was published by Cambridge University Press in September 2022. Her book provides a new understanding of how the several stages of the jury process transform a group of reluctant citizens into a jury capable of and ready to reach a just verdict.

This latest book is the culmination of a lifetime of work as a jury scholar. Professor Marder has presented her work at 175 conferences in the United States and around the world. Her audiences have included legal scholars, academics from a variety of disciplines, judges, lawyers, and other practitioners, and her presentations have ranged from panel discussions to keynote speeches.

Professor Marder’s books also include Juries, Mixed Courts, and Lay Judges: A Global Perspective, for which she was a co-editor and that was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. This book focuses on juries and lay participation in many countries across the globe. Professor Marder was also the author of The Jury Process published by Foundation Press. Her scholarly articles have appeared in such law reviews as Northwestern University Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Texas Law Review, and Southern California Law Review, as well as Yale Law Journal (when she was an articles editor).

To reach a diverse audience of scholars, practitioners, and citizens around the world who are engaged in creating and strengthening the jury system, Professor Marder has also written numerous book chapters, book reviews, and essays addressing an array of issues of popular interest, such as recent Supreme Court decisions, current jury trials, cameras in the court room, the role of Judge Judy and TV judges, and the movie Twelve Angry Men, among many others. She has appeared on numerous radio programs, such as National Public Radio, and television programs, such as WTTW's “Chicago Tonight,” as she seeks to engage high school students, law students, lawyers, and judges in discussion of these issues.

Professor Marder created and directs the Justice John Paul Stevens Jury Center at Chicago-Kent, which informs scholars, lawyers, law students, and members of the public and press about work on the jury and also undertakes special projects, including five symposia in the Chicago-Kent Law Review: “The Jury at a Crossroad: The American Experience,” “Secrecy in Litigation,” “The 50th Anniversary of 12 Angry Men,” “Comparative Jury Systems,” and “Juries and Lay Participation: American Perspectives and Global Trends.” Through the Stevens Jury Center’s efforts, as led by Professor Marder, the Chicago-Kent Law Review has become one of the leading sources of scholarship on the jury.

Professor Marder named the Jury Center in honor of Justice Stevens for whom she clerked for two Terms.  Prior to clerking for Justice Stevens, she was a law clerk for Judge William A. Norris on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Leonard B. Sand in the Southern District of New York. Prior to her clerkships, Professor Marder was a litigation associate at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.  Professor Marder has a B.A. (summa cum laude) in English and Afro-American Studies from Yale College; a M. Phil. In International Relations from Cambridge University, where she was a Mellon Fellow; and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an articles editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Professor Marder tries to ensure that her scholarship is of use to judges, jurors, and lawyers. As professor/reporter for the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions in Civil Cases since 2003, Professor Marder has helped to draft jury instructions for Illinois. She has also drafted jury instructions for the ABA, advocated successfully for rule changes affecting jurors in Illinois, given public testimony for proposed jury reforms, and served as a member on various jury advisory committees.

At Chicago-Kent, Professor Marder teaches required first-year courses such as Legislation and Civil Procedure, as well as upper-level electives including Juries, Judges, and Trials and Law, Literature, and Feminism.