Brian Highsmith

Brian is an Academic Fellow in Law and Political Economy at Harvard Law School and Ph.D. candidate in Government and Social Policy at Harvard University. His research explores connections between economic inequality, residential segregation, fiscal federalism, corporate power, mass punishment, and local democracy. After graduating from Yale Law School in 2017, he was a Skadden Fellow at the National Consumer Law Center; his litigation and advocacy there challenged the unaffordable financial obligations that are imposed by private companies on poor families as a result of their contact with the criminal system. Before joining NCLC, he worked in DC on domestic economic policy with a focus on income support programs and fiscal policy—including at President Obama’s National Economic Council, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the office of Senator Cory Booker. During the 2022-23 academic year, he was a fellow in law and public policy at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.