Thomas B. Bennett

Professor Thomas B. Bennett comes to SMU Dedman School of Law from the University of Missouri, where he was Associate Professor of Law and Wall Family Fellow and enjoyed a joint appointment at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy. He joins the SMU faculty as Associate Professor of Law in fall 2024.

Professor Bennett’s research focuses on how complex civil litigation strains the relationship between state and federal courts and impacts the separation of powers. Professor Bennett’s scholarship has appeared or will appear in the NYU Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Missouri Law Review, and the Kentucky Law Journal, and has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. Before joining the University of Missouri faculty in 2020, he was a Furman Academic Fellow at NYU School of Law and spent four years in private practice litigating appeals, complex civil cases, and administrative matters. Professor Bennett is also a former law clerk to the Honorable Gerard E. Lynch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He holds a J.D. magna cum laude from NYU School of Law and a B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College.