Biography

David Freeman Engstrom’s scholarship focuses on the design of public institutions, particularly regarding civil rights, as well as topics in administrative law, employment law, complex litigation, constitutional federalism, and law and education. Current work includes a book exploring the pre-Title VII, state-level origins of American employment discrimination law; a quantitative analysis of disability discrimination laws; and a project examining the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.

Previously, Professor Engstrom ’02 was a law clerk to Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a John M. Olin Fellow in Law, Economics, and Public Policy at Yale Law School. He also practiced for four years, most of it at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, where he represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and various trial courts and administrative agencies. Earlier in his career, he worked on education, early childhood, and civil rights issues at the Edward Zigler Center at Yale University and the Hewlett Foundation and taught high school and coached football in the Mississippi Delta.

Key Works

• David Freeman Engstrom, Agencies as Litigation Gatekeepers (working paper).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Public Regulation of Private Enforcement: Empirical Analysis of DOJ Oversight of Qui Tam Litigation Under the False Claims Act, 107 Northwestern University Law Review __ (forthcoming 2013).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Harnessing the Private Attorney General: Evidence from Qui Tam Litigation, 112 Columbia Law Review __ (forthcoming 2012).
• David Freeman Engstrom, The Lost Origins of American Fair Employment Law: Regulatory Choice and the Making of Modern Civil Rights, 1943-1972, 63 Stanford Law Review 1071 (2011).
• David Freeman Engstrom, The Taft Proposal of 1946 and the (Non-)Making of American Fair Employment Law, 9 Green Bag 181 (Winter 2006).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Drawing Lines Between Chevron and Pennhurst: A Functional Analysis of the Spending Power, Federalism, and the Administrative State, 82 Texas Law Review 1197 (2004).
• David M. Engstrom, Civil Rights Paradox? Lawyers and Educational Equity, 10 Journal of Law & Policy 387 (2002).
• Mark H. Greenberg, Jodie Levin-Epstein, Rutledge Q. Hutson, Theodora J. Ooms, Rachel Schumacher, Vicki Turetsky and David M. Engstrom, The 1996 Welfare Law: Key Elements and Reauthorization Issues Affecting Children, 12 Future of Children 27 (Winter/Spring 2002).
• David M. Engstrom, Post-Brown Politics, Whole-School Reform, and the Case of Norfolk, Virginia, 12 Stanford Law & Policy Review 163 (2001).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Administrative Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• David Freeman Engstrom, Agencies as Litigation Gatekeepers (working paper).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Public Regulation of Private Enforcement: Empirical Analysis of DOJ Oversight of Qui Tam Litigation Under the False Claims Act, 107 Northwestern University Law Review __ (forthcoming 2013).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Harnessing the Private Attorney General: Evidence from Qui Tam Litigation, 112 Columbia Law Review __ (forthcoming 2012).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Civil Rights Rollback: The Significance of Walmart vs. Dukes, Boston Review online, June 23, 2011.
• David Freeman Engstrom, The Lost Origins of American Fair Employment Law: Regulatory Choice and the Making of Modern Civil Rights, 1943-1972, 63 Stanford Law Review 1071 (2011).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Why Health Care Ruling Not a Game-Ender, CNN Opinion, February 2, 2011.
• David Freeman Engstrom, The Taft Proposal of 1946 and the (Non-)Making of American Fair Employment Law, 9 Green Bag 181 (Winter 2006).
• David Freeman Engstrom, Drawing Lines Between Chevron and Pennhurst: A Functional Analysis of the Spending Power, Federalism, and the Administrative State, 82 Texas Law Review 1197 (2004).
• David M. Engstrom, Civil Rights Paradox? Lawyers and Educational Equity, 10 Journal of Law & Policy 387 (2002).
• Mark H. Greenberg, Jodie Levin-Epstein, Rutledge Q. Hutson, Theodora J. Ooms, Rachel Schumacher, Vicki Turetsky and David M. Engstrom, The 1996 Welfare Law: Key Elements and Reauthorization Issues Affecting Children, 12 Future of Children 27 (Winter/Spring 2002).