About the Authors
Christopher E. Smith is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Prior to joining the Michigan State University faculty in 1994, he spent seven years as a faculty member in the University of Akron’s Department of Political Science. He is the author of two dozen books and more than 130 scholarly articles and book chapters on constitutional law, courts, and public policy.
Among other awards, he is the recipient of the MSU Teacher-Scholar Award (1997) and the Outstanding Teaching Award for the MSU College of Social Science (2012), as well as MSU School of Criminal Justice “Wall of Fame” inductee honors (2021).
Professor Smith earned his AB in Government from Harvard University and his MSc in Social Sciences from the University of Bristol (England). He is an Order of the Coif graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, and he earned his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Connecticut.
Ben Trachtenberg is the Isidor Loeb Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law. He serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies at the MU School of Law and also as Special Advisor to the Chancellor of the University of Missouri. Professor Trachtenberg joined the MU faculty in 2010. Before coming to Missouri, Professor Trachtenberg was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Brooklyn Law School from 2008-2010. From 2006-2008, he was a Litigation Associate at Covington & Burling LLP.
Professor Trachtenberg received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was an Articles Editor on the Columbia Law Review. He has an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Limerick and a B.A. from Yale in Political Science, with distinction. After graduating from law school, Professor Trachtenberg clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with Judge José A. Cabranes.
In 2012, Professor Trachtenberg received the Gold Chalk Award for excellence in teaching from the MU Graduate Professional Council. In 2014, he won the Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award, and in 2015, he received the Husch Blackwell Distinguished Faculty Award from the School of Law. In 2018, he received the Provost’s Faculty Leadership Award for University Citizenship, and he won the UM System President’s Award in that category in 2019. Professor Trachtenberg chaired the MU Faculty Council on University Policy during 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.
Anne Alexander is an Associate Teaching Professor of Law and the Director of Legal Research & Writing at the University of Missouri School of Law. Her process-oriented methodology encourages students to develop their own knowledge about legal analysis and to communicate legal ideas to non-legal audiences. She presents nationally about her teaching techniques.
In 2015, Professor Alexander won the University of Missouri Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award (Graduate School). In 2016, she won the Earnest L. Boyer International Award for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology and was one of seven recipients of the Innovation Award at the International Conference on College Teaching and Learning. In 2017 and 2019, Professor Alexander was recognized as the Lloyd L Gaines Honoree by the Black Law Student Association; she also received the Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award. In 2019, she received the Carrie Mae Carroll Award from the Women’s Law Association and the Gold Chalk Award for excellence in teaching from the MU Graduate Professional Council.
Professor Alexander has a BA in Anthropology and an MS in Education from Indiana University. She graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from the University of Missouri School of Law and then worked as an associate attorney at Jenner & Block in Chicago. Prior to attending law school, she was an elementary school teacher.
