Education
B.A., The University of Texas at Austin
J.D., Harvard Law School

Areas of Expertise
Constitutional Law
The First Amendment
American Legal History

Professor Siegel teaches Constitutional Law and the First Amendment.  His scholarship focuses on constitutional law, civil rights, and legal history.  His biography of Judge Irving R. Kaufman, Judgment and Mercy: The Turbulent Life and Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs (Cornell University Press 2023), was named a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for best first book in any genre.  He has written law review articles on constitutional topics; articles for practitioners on appellate litigation; and Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Houston Chronicle.  Before joining the faculty, Professor Siegel was an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center, where he founded and directed the Appellate Civil Rights Clinic and taught American Legal History. 

Professor Siegel began his career as law clerk to Judge Kaufman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then joined Jenner & Block LLP as an associate.  He served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he brought civil rights actions, defended federal statutes from constitutional challenge, and represented federal agencies in suits based on government action.  In 1999, he received the Justice Department’s Director’s Award for the successful trial defense of the CIA in a case stemming from the agency’s use of LSD in the 1950s.  Professor Siegel then served on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  After leaving government, he was a partner at Watts Law Firm LLP and then founded his own appellate practice representing clients in civil rights, commercial, and tort cases and prevailing as lead counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court, several federal appellate courts, and the Texas Supreme Court.