U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks while delivering an address to the nation during an election event in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., on Nov. 7, 2020. Biden defeated Donald Trump to become the 46th U.S. president, unseating the incumbent with a pledge to unify and mend a nation reeling from a worsening pandemic, faltering economy and deep political divisions. Photo: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg
You can’t throw a stone around President-Elect Joe Biden’s transition teams without hitting a law professor.
Legal academics are playing key roles on the so-called “agency review teams” Biden announced this month as he gets ready to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Unsurprisingly, law professors are heavily represented on Biden’s Department of Justice transition team, occupying seven of the 29 slots. But legal educators are also particularly prominent on the Department of Interior transition team, which is being headed up by University of Iowa College of Law Dean Kevin Washburn. (Washburn is no stranger to the Interior Department, having served as the department’s assistant secretary of Indian affairs during the Obama Administration.) Nearly half of that transition team’s members hail from law schools.
