UVA Law Creators & Guests

Jack Balkin is a legal scholar. He is the Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School.

Glenn S. Gerstell is a lawyer and technology writer. Currently, he is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, where he writes on technology and national security matters.From 2015 to 2020, Gerstell served as the General Counsel of the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Before that, he was a member of the US National Infrastructure Advisory Council and a Commissioner of the Washington, D.C. Homeland Security Commission.Gerstell received his B.A. from New York University and his J.D. from Columbia University.

Dr. Mary Anne Franks is a legal scholar, author, activist, and media commentator. Currently, she is a Professor of Law and Chair at the University of Miami School of Law, where she teaches First Amendment law, Second Amendment law, criminal law, criminal procedure, family law, and law and technology. Her work focuses on online harassment, free speech, discrimination, and violence. She also serves as President and Legislative and Technology Policy Director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.Franks's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, and she has been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. She has appeared on CNN, the Today show, and Vice News.Franks is a co-producer of the documentary film, "Hot Girls Wanted," which was released in 2015. Her first book, "The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech," which won a gold medal at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards as well as the 2020 Association of American Publishers PROSE Award for Legal Studies and Excellence in Social Sciences. Her second book, "Fearless Speech," was published in 2023.Franks received her B.A. in Philosophy and English Literature from Loyola University New Orleans, her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Foreign Languages and Literatures from University of Oxford, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Wesley K. Clark is a retired general of the United States Army.

Richard L. Hasen is a legal scholar and expert in legislation, election law, and campaign finance. Currently, he is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld is a researcher and consultant on troubled democracies facing problems such as polarized populations, violence, corruption, and poor governance in the United States and internationally. Currently, she is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.Prior to joining Carnegie, Kleinfeld co-founded and directed the Truman National Security Project.Kleinfeld's writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic to the Journal of Democracy and the Annual Review of Political Science. Her first book, "Let There Be Light: Electrifying the Developing World with Markets and Distributed Energy," co-authored with Drew Sloan, was published in 2011. Her second book, "Advancing the Rule of Law Abroad: Next Generation Reform," was published in 2012. Her third book, "A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security," was published in 2018. Her TED talk on improving violent democracies has been translated into 17 languages and viewed over a million times.Kleinfeld received her B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University, and her M. Phil and D. Phil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.