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F. Michael Higginbotham  

Renowned Law Professor, Author and International Political Consultant; Civil Rights, Human Rights, and Constitutional Legal Expert

F Michael Higginbotham is a renowned law professor, author and international political consultant. A civil rights, human rights and constitutional legal expert, he has appeared in media worldwide.

Higginbotham is the author of the book Race Law: Cases, Commentary, and Questions (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2001). Now in its third edition, Race Law is widely used in colleges and law schools throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. His latest book, Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America has just been released in paperback by NYU Press.

Higginbotham was recently selected one of the 100 most influential black attorneys in the United States by On Being a Black Lawyer. He was a winner of the Daily Record's Leadership in Law Award. He is a member of the Maryland Appellate Judicial Nominations Commission and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the former Chair of the O'Malley/Brown Transition Team Minority Affairs Working Group, the former Chair of the Maryland Attorney General's Task Force on Electronic Weapons, the former Chair on the Association of American Law Schools Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Faculty, and the former Chairman of the Board of the Public Justice Center. He is a Co-founder of the Baltimore Scholars Program. Higginbotham is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and holds an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Shenandoah University.

Higginbotham has published numerous articles in journals including the Yale Law and Policy Review, the Harvard Blackletter Law Journal, the New York University Law Review, the Columbia University International Law Journal, the University of Hawaii Law Review, the Howard University Law Journal, and the University of Illinois Law Review. He has published numerous editorials in newspapers including the Chronicle Review, the Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun, and the Washington Afro-American.

Before joining the University of Baltimore law faculty in 1988, Higginbotham was a Law Clerk to United States Court of Appeals Judge Cecil Poole, an Associate with Davis, Polk & Wardwell, and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania. He often collaborated with his uncle, the late Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.

Higginbotham graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1975, received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Brown University in 1979, a Juris Doctor degree from Yale University in 1982, and a Master of Laws degree with honors from Cambridge University in 1985 where he was a Rotary Scholar.

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  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Hispanic Heritage

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