Daniel Filler was an inaugural faculty member of the Kline School of Law and was part of the team of faculty who designed and implemented the distinctive vision that drives the Kline School of Law. He became dean of the law school in January 2017.
Dean Filler is a nationally recognized legal scholar with deep expertise in the areas of capital punishment, juvenile justice, and sex crimes. His research appears in several highly respected journals including the Virginia Law Review, the California Law Review, and the Iowa Law Review. The Supreme Court cited his work in the 2016 case, Nichols v. United States. His commentary on legal education is also widely read. In 2008, he co-founded The Faculty Lounge, a nationally recognized blog which has been honored several times as a member of the ABA Blawg 100.
In addition to his strong scholarly and academic footprint, Dean Filler is a highly skilled attorney with a diverse practice background. He worked in the New York office of the internationally firm, Debevoise & Plimpton and served as a public defender with both the Bronx Defenders and the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He has significant experience representing defendants facing the death penalty and created a clinic advocating for children in special education disputes.
Dean Filler has led efforts to study the capital punishment process as implemented in the states. In 2012, he was appointed by the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission to the state’s Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment. Previously he served as chair of the American Bar Association’s Alabama Death Penalty Assessment team, whose 2006 report was cited by the Supreme Court in the 2012 decision, Maples v. Thomas.
Before joining the Kline School of Law faculty, Dean Filler was a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law. He was an aggressive advocate for hands-on education and split his time between doctrinal and clinical teaching. He established both the school’s Capital Defense Clinic and its Special Education Clinic, graduating students with hands-on litigation skills.
Dean Filler earned his J.D. from New York University School of Law after serving as an editor for the New York University Law Review and winning the Orison S. Marden Moot Court Competition. He clerked for Judge J. Dickson Phillips Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Dean Filler has been extensively quoted in media outlets such as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, Business Week, NPR and NBC News. He has also lectured and given talks widely, both in the United States and China.