Biography

A former Massachusetts assistant attorney general and assistant district attorney, George Fisher is one of the nation’s top scholars of criminal law and evidence. In his scholarship he explores, through meticulous archival research, the history of criminal law and criminal institutions from prisons to juries, from plea bargaining to the regulation of alcohol and drugs. Professor Fisher’s publications include an acclaimed casebook on evidence and a history of plea bargaining in America. Professor Fisher is the director of the Criminal Prosecution Clinic at the law school and a three-time winner of the John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching at Stanford Law School.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1995, he was a clinical professor at Boston College Law School, an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, and an assistant district attorney for Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Early in his career Professor Fisher clerked for Judge Stephen G. Breyer (BA ’59) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Key Works

• George Fisher, Married to Alcohol: The Drug War's Moral Roots, (forthcoming).
• George Fisher, Evidence, New York: Foundation Press, 2nd ed., 2008
• George Fisher, Plea Bargaining's Triumph: A History of Plea Bargaining in America, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003. 397 pages.
• George Fisher, The Jury's Rise as Lie Detector, 107 Yale Law Journal 575-713 (1997).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Criminal Prosecution Clinic
• Evidence

Programs

• Criminal Prosecution Clinic, Director

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• George Fisher, Married to Alcohol: The Drug War's Moral Roots, (forthcoming).
• George Fisher, Evidence, New York: Foundation Press, 2nd ed., 2008
• George Fisher, Checking Candidates' Votes on War, San Jose Mercury News, January 29, 2008, pg. 12A.
• George Fisher, Aspirations and the War Vote, Portsmouth Herald News, December 30, 2007
• George Fisher, Federal Rules of Evidence, 2007-2008 Statutory and Case Supplement, New York: Foundation Press, 2007.
• George Fisher, Historian in the Cellar, 59 Stanford Law Review 1 (2006).
• George Fisher, Federal Rules of Evidence Statutory and Case Supplement 2004-2005 Edition, New York, NY: Foundation Press, 2004.
• George Fisher, Green Felt Jungle: The Story of People v. Collins, in Evidence Stories, Richard O. Lempert, ed., New York: Foundation Press, 2006.
• George Fisher, Federal Rules of Evidence Statutory and Case Supplement 2005-2006 Edition, New York, NY: Foundation Press, 2005.
• George Fisher, Federal Rules of Evidence Statutory and Case Supplement. 2004-2005 edition, New York, NY: Foundation Press, 2005. 444 pages.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Member, Board of Directors, Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights
• Brought the (losing) case, FAIR v. Rumsfeld, 126 S. Ct. 1297 (2006)

Honors and Awards

• Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 1999, 2003