Rebecca Roiphe

Rebecca Roiphe studies lawyers’ ethics and the history of the legal profession, focusing on the interaction between lawyers’ work and the rhetoric or ideals of professionalism. Prior to joining New York Law School, Professor Roiphe worked as a Manhattan prosecutor. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Bruce Selya, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She draws on her professional experiences and her training as a historian in her writing. Her scholarship emphasizes the important, mediating role prosecutors play in American democracy and examines the country’s tradition of prosecutorial independence, particularly with regard to the President’s power to control the Department of Justice. Professor Roiphe’s opinion pieces have appeared in Slate, the New York Review of Books, Politico, U.S. News, and other popular press. She is frequently quoted as an expert on legal ethics and criminal justice in the media, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, Vice News, and the New York Law Journal. Professor Roiphe has appeared on MSNBC and CNN. She is a contributing legal analyst at CBS News, where she appears regularly to discuss national legal issues, particularly those involving Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian influence in the 2016 election and the impeachment trials of President Donald J. Trump.