The classroom experience should be both fun and interesting for the students. I’ve been teaching for 15 years, and I have never used intimidation as a way to educate. If I thought that fear focused the minds of my students, I would fire automatic weapons over their heads in class. In the House of Russell—which is what I call my classes—I rely on humor and raw smarts. I love teaching.

The University of Denver has a great teaching faculty. I taught for ten years at the University of Texas at Austin and quit that job to come to Denver. I have been a visiting professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and at UC-Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. I was also a lecturer at Stanford Law School. DU has better teachers than all of those schools.

My scholarship explores the relationship between law and that place we call the real world. I’m a legal historian by training, and I have written about law’s role in the practical operation of slavery. I also have written about the history of personal injury litigation. In the past few years, I began an exploration of Restorative Justice, and I believe that my restorative justice seminar was the first such course in an American law school.

In addition to scholarship, teaching, and community service, I have a small solo legal practice in which I represent injured persons seeking compensation for their personal injuries.