Brooke D. Coleman
Co-Associate Dean For Research and Faculty Development and Professor of Law
Curriculum VitaeBiography
Brooke Coleman is the Associate Dean of Research & Faculty Development and Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law. Her research and teaching interests focus on procedure and procedural justice. Her work has been published in the New York University Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Notre Dame Law Review, and Boston College Law Review, among others. She is also the lead author of an innovative civil procedure casebook, Learning Civil Procedure. In addition to her teaching and scholarship, she is the co-founder and co-organizer of the Civil Procedure Workshop, the incoming chair of the AALS Section on Civil Procedure, and a co-editor of the Courts Law section for the online legal journal JOTWELL.
Prior to joining Seattle University, Professor Coleman was a Thomas C. Grey Fellow at Stanford Law School. She also clerked for Honorable David F. Levi, district judge in the Eastern District of California and then-chair of the Standing Committee on the Federal Rules of Practice and Procedure. Before her clerkship, she practiced as an attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian in Palo Alto, California.
Professor Coleman's teaching interests include civil procedure, advanced litigation, and federal courts. She has received numerous honors for her teaching, including the law school's Outstanding Faculty Award in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2020.
Publications
Law Review Articles
Evolutionary Procedure, work in progress
Janus-Faced Rulemaking, CARDOZO L. REV. (forthcoming 2019)
#SoWhiteMale (federal civil rulemaking), 113 NW. U. L. REV. 407 (2018)
A Legal Fempire?: Women in Complex Civil Litigation, 93 IND. L. J. 1 (2018)
· Selected for peer review in JOTWELL (2017)
· Selected for the Ninth Annual Federal Courts Workshop
Reinvigorating Commonality: Gender & Class Actions, 92 N.Y.U. LAW REV. 895 (2017)
(with Elizabeth Porter).
• Republished in WOMEN & THE LAW (forthcoming 2018 Thomson Reuters)
One Percent Procedure, 91 WASH. L. REV. 1005 (2016)
The Efficiency Norm, 56 B.C. L. REV. 1777 (2015)
· Selected for peer review in JOTWELL (2016)
Civil-izing Federalism, 89 TUL. L. REV. 307 (2014)
· Selected for the Seventh Annual Federal Courts Workshop
Prison is Prison, 88 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 2399 (2013)
· Cited in BARBARA BABCOCK ET AL., CIVIL PROCEDURE: CASES & PROBLEMS (5th ed. 2013)
Books
LEARNING CIVIL PROCEDURE (2D. ED. WEST, 2015) with Jeffrey W. Stempel, Michael J. Kaufman, David F. Herr, & Steven Baicker-McKee
THE CRITICAL GUIDE TO CIVIL PROCEDURE (with Suzette Malveaux, Portia Pedro, & Elizabeth Porter) (in progress)
Selected Blogs & Shorter Works
Discovering Innovation: Discovery Reform & Federal Civil Rulemaking, 51 AKRON L. REV. (2018) (invited symposium)
Federal Civil Rulemaking, Discovery Reform, & the Promise of Pilot Projects, ACS Issue Brief, March 2018, https://www.acslaw.org/mandatoryinitialdiscovery (invited response)
Dear White Men: You Are the Key to Women's Success in Law Firms, Bloomberg, September 12, 2017
Aggregate Litigation & All That We Do Not Know, 102 IOWA L. REV. ONLINE 240 (2017) (invited response)
Recent Activity
In the News
Rules for federal court procedure are written by almost all white menNovember 04, 2020 | Federal News Network
Professor Brooke Coleman discusses the lopsided make-up of the federal rules committee.
Is it too late to save SCOTUS?October 28, 2020 | KIRO Radio
Professor Brooke Coleman speculates on the future of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Local professors see new era taking shape for Supreme Court after Barrett confirmationOctober 26, 2020 | KOMO News
Professor Brooke Coleman says the U.S. Supreme Court will "perform as advertised."
Seattle University law prof: For civility, we should restore filibuster and not pack the courtSeptember 21, 2020 | MyNorthwest.com
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg advocated for incremental, lasting change, says Professor Brooke Coleman.
A national evictions cliff is coming. America's failing legal system will make it worseJuly 14, 2020 | The Appeal
Scholarship by Professor Brooke Coleman is cited in this article calling for right to counsel in civil cases.
After Judge's 'Troubling' Behavior, Lawmakers Question Court Misconduct RulesFebruary 06, 2020 | The New York Times
A letter from lawmakers is a "big step" toward judiciary reforms, Professor Brooke Coleman says.