David J. Barron

Judge Barron was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in May 2014. He graduated from Harvard College in 1989 and Harvard Law School in 1994. From 1989 to 1991, he worked as a newspaper reporter. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, from 1994 to 1995, and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court, from 1995 to 1996. He then worked as an attorney advisor for the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice, from 1996 to 1999.  In 1999, Judge Barron became an assistant professor at Harvard Law School. He became a full professor at Harvard Law School in 2004, where he worked until he rejoined the Justice Department as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, from 2009 to 2010. He then returned to the Harvard Law School faculty in 2010, where he was named the S. William Green Professor of Public Law in 2011, and where worked until his appointment to the federal bench in 2014.

Judge Barron continues to teach at Harvard Law School as the Louis D. Brandeis Visiting Professor of Law. Among his publications are City Bound, with Jerry Frug, and Waging War, which won the 2017 Colby Award. He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.