Dr. Lee Kovarsky

Biography

Lee Kovarsky is a leading scholar of the death penalty and habeas corpus, focusing on civil and criminal procedure, criminal justice, federal jurisdiction, and conflicts law. In addition to teaching at Texas Law, he represents death-sentenced prisoners awaiting execution and has worked on numerous capital post-conviction cases. His scholarship has been cited by the United States Supreme Court as well as seven federal circuit courts. In 2020, Kovarsky was elected to the American Law Institute. He has published extensively in prestigious law reviews including California, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Michigan, New York University, Stanford, Texas, Vanderbilt, and Virginia Law Reviews. He co-authored a leading casebook on habeas corpus with Professor Brandon L. Garrett and remains active as a habeas capital litigator, regularly drafting and contributing amicus briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts on behalf of law professors and professional organizations. Kovarsky has been featured in popular media and has written for outlets like New York, MSNBC, Slate, and Salon. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Articles Editor for the Virginia Law Review. Before joining Texas Law in the summer of 2020, he had a decade-long tenure at the University of Maryland and served as an Acting Assistant Professor at New York University School of Law.

Research Interests

Experience