Goodwin Liu has been an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California since 2011. An expert in constitutional law, education law and policy, and diversity in the legal profession, he has written about causation fallacy as it applies to affirmative action and has led several pathbreaking studies on the professional barriers faced by Asian Americans in law and other fields. Before joining the California Supreme Court, Liu clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court and served as a professor and associate dean at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
Professional positions
- 2011–present: Associate justice, California Supreme Court
- 2022–present: Lecturer, Columbia Law School
- 2016–present: Honorable William S. Green Visiting Professor of Public Law, Harvard Law School
- 2016–2022: Lecturer, Stanford Law School
- 2003–2011: Assistant (2003–2008) and full (2008–2011) professor of law and associate dean (2008–2010), University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
- 2001–2003: Litigation associate, O’Melveny & Myers LLP
- 2000–2001: Law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court
- 1999–2000: Special assistant to the deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Education (under President Bill Clinton)
- 1998–1999: Law clerk to Judge David S. Tatel, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Notable publications
- Liu, Goodwin, Miranda Li, and Phillip Yao. 2020. “Who’s Going to Law School? Trends in Law School Enrollment Since the Great Recession.” UC Davis Law Review 54 (2): 613–662.
- Liu, Goodwin. 2018. “Racial Justice in the Age of Diversity.” California Law Review 106 (6): 1977–1986.
- Liu, Goodwin, Pamela S. Karlan, and Christopher H. Schroeder. 2009. Keeping Faith with the Constitution. American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
- Liu, Goodwin. 2002. “The Causation Fallacy: Bakke and the Basic Arithmetic of Selective Admissions.” Michigan Law Review 100 (5): 1045–1106.
Degrees
- JD, Yale University
- MA, philosophy and physiology, Oxford University
- BS, biological sciences, Stanford University
