The Constitutional Law Center at The University of Akron School of Law was established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to commemorate the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. The Primary purpose of the Center is to promote scholarships concerning the United States Constitution, including its Amendments, to commemorate the creation of that document and help illuminate its application to modern times. The Center houses the John F. Seiberling Chair in Constitutional Law, sponsors conferences, conducts research on constitutional issues, and hosts the Ralph Regula Lecture.

The inaugural holder of the Seiberling Chair was the late US Supreme Court justice Authur Goldberg. Other scholars who have held the Chair are Richard L. Aynes, our current Dean, and Chapman Distinguished Professor Paul Finkelman of the University of Tulsa College of Law.

The Chairholder for Spring 2002 was Albany Law Professor Stephen Gottlieb. Professor Gottlieb is the author of the acclaimed MORALITY IMPOSED: THE REHNQUIST COURT AND CIVIL LIBERTIES IN AMERICA (NYU PRESS) among other books and numerous articles in prestigious journals. He taught a seminar in Comparative Constitutional Law and gave a distinguished lecture series while in residence at The University of Akron.

The David L. Brennan Chair of Law

The David L. Brennan Chair of Law was established in 1984. David L. Brennan is a partner in Amer Cunningham Brennan Company, one of Akron's leading law firms. He is also an entrepreneur. David and his wife, Ann, a 1982 graduate of the School of Law, are active in community affairs and strongly supportive of legal education. The endowment of the Brennan Chair creates a margin of excellence at the School of Law beyond that which public funds can provide.

The Honorable Arthur J. Goldberg

The inaugural holder of the Brennan Chair was the Honorable Arthur J. Goldberg, who taught a seven-week seminar in Selected Problems in Constitutional Law during Fall 1984. He presided over simulated presentations of cases then pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. In the presentations, students not only argued cases, but wrote opinions. In the final session the arguments were conducted before Goldberg and a panel that included six justices of the Ohio Supreme Court.