Dr. Chance Meyer
After graduating from Tulane Law School (J.D., 2007) and serving as a law clerk to a federal district court judge, Dr. Meyer practiced for nearly a decade in the area of death penalty appeals, which lawyers have called “the brain surgery of our profession.” From state to federal jurisdictions, from trial to appellate courts, from witness testimony to oral arguments, from small-town venues to the Supreme Court of the United States, Dr. Meyer performed all aspects of criminal litigation while facing the highest possible stakes: life or death. He continues to serve occasionally as Special Counsel in death penalty matters.
Dr. Meyer’s legal scholarship, focusing on the Eighth Amendment and capital punishment, has been influential. His law review articles have been quoted by the Florida Supreme Court[2] and cited in Criminal Law hornbooks and treatises.
In 2016, Dr. Meyer became a full-time law professor. He has served on law faculties at several law schools teaching a variety of courses both doctrinal and skills-focused, such as Criminal Law and Legal Research & Writing. Dr. Meyer has designed and delivered the learning of law in classroom and asynchronous formats, online and in person, for large groups and small. Across contexts and scale, Dr. Meyer has helped thousands of low-performing learners reach success and high-performing learners reach even greater heights. He has also served in law school administrative roles, from Assistant Dean of Academic Success and Professionalism to Director of Online Programming.
While his work as a law professor was ongoing, Dr. Meyer earned a Doctor of Education degree from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development (Ed.D., 2023). In this program, Dr. Meyer studied cognitive science, educational psychology, situated learning theory, educational data science, program evaluation, improvement science, and other disciplines. As a generalist bridging these fields, Dr. Meyer applies principles and tools from each to his work as a law school educator. He publishes on how these disciplines can be used to improve the effectiveness of law school programs. He has conducted grant-funded research applying cognitive and social psychology to legal education and has been retained by law schools as a consultant, helping improve organizational outcomes like bar exam performance.