Skip Sub Menu
Dean Strang
.png)
Associate Professor of Law
Director of the Institute for Justice Reform and Innovation
Expertise: Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Torts, Conflict of Laws
Education
JD, University of Virginia School of Law
AB, Dartmouth College
Experience
- Drake Law School professor since 2025
- Distinguished Professor in Residence, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
- Visiting Professor, University of Iowa College of Law and University of San Francisco School of Law
- Co-founder and Shareholder, StrangBradley, LLC
- Shareholder, Hurley, Burish & Stanton, SC
- Federal Defender and Executive Director, Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, Inc.
Selected Publications
-
Keep the Wretches in Order: America’s Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW (U. Wisconsin Press 2019; paperback ed. 2020).
-
Worse Than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror (U. Wisconsin Press 2013; 2d ed. 2016).
-
Ending Manner-of-Death Testimony and Other Opinion Determinations of Crime, 60 Duquesne Law Review 302 (2022) (with K. Findley).
-
Inaccuracy and Involuntary Confessions: Understanding Rogers v. Richmond Rightly, 110 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 69 (2020).
-
Double Jeopardy’s Dual Sovereignty: A Tragic (and Implausible) Lack of Humility, 18 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 365 (2020) (with S. Henderson).
Significant Accomplishments
- Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, co-founder and Board of Directors, 2017—2022; emeritus director and advisor, 2022— present
- Law Forward, Advisory Board, 2020—present
- Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Policy Advisory Council, appointed December 2018 by Governor-Elect Tony Evers
- Faculty Member of the Year, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, 2023 (voted by students)
- Champion of Justice award, Alliance for Justice, 2016
- Fierce Advocate award, John Jay College, 2016
- Praeses Elit award, Trinity College Dublin, 2016
- Member, American Law Institute
Biography
Dean A. Strang is an Associate Professor at Drake University Law School, the Director of the Institute for Justice Reform and Innovation at Drake University, and a part-time criminal defense lawyer. He has written two books of legal history, Keep the Wretches in Order: America's Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW (2019 & paperback ed. 2020); and Worse Than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror (2013 & rev. ed. 2016). Additionally, Strang has written and co-authored several law review articles and book chapters as well. His past work includes five years as Wisconsin’s first Federal Defender. He has argued in the United States Supreme Court, five federal Courts of Appeal, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He is a co-founder of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute since 2004. Strang also is known for his work in a trial documented in Netflix’s Making A Murderer.
