The career of Zephyr Teachout unites scholarship with activism. Since 2009, she has taught at Fordham University School of Law, where she writes about political law with a focus on corruption. Her Cornell Law Review article, The Anti-Corruption Principle, was cited by Justice Stevens in his dissent in Citizen’s United. Professor Teachout’s book Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United was published by the Harvard University Press in 2014.
Professor Teachout’s service and activism extend beyond the university walls. She was one of the lawyers behind the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility in Government in Washington against President Donald Trump for violating the Emoluments Clause by taking money from foreign governments through his business ventures. She also is known for her work as director of online organizing for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, where she led the technical team developing social media tools for supporters, many of which were used in President Barack Obama’s 2008 online campaign. As the first national director of the Sunlight Foundation, she led several crowd-sourced investigative journalism projects, including a national campaign to expose the political connections behind earmarks. She was a death penalty defense lawyer at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in North Carolina, and she co-founded a non-profit dedicated to providing trial experience to new law school graduates.
Professor Teachout grew up in Vermont. She received her BA in English from Yale University and graduated summa cum laude from Duke Law School, where she was the editor-in-chief of the Duke Law Journal. After law school, she clerked for Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Professor Zephyr Teachout’s Enlund Lecture argues that labor law, as currently conceived, requires a strong antimonopoly component. She argues for a renewed focus on what is sometimes called "monopsony law" and new laws that would strengthen workers power relative to capital. Professor Teachout’s talk draws from her book, Break ’Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money and her talk will be followed by commentary by Professor Veena Dubal from UC Hastings Law and Professor Sanjukta Paul of Wayne State University Law School.