Heather Elliott

Heather Elliott is Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law.

She is a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and to Judge Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She joined the Law School in August 2008 after serving as Assistant Professor at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC.  She teaches civil procedure, land use law & planning, and water law.

Elliott received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she was an articles editor for the Ecology Law Quarterly, earned an Environmental Law Certificate, and was elected to Order of the Coif.  She earned M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in political science at Yale University and graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a B.A. in political science and philosophy.

From 2003-2005, she was an appellate litigation associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP in Washington, DC, where she wrote briefs to the United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and numerous federal and state intermediate appellate courts in cases involving constitutional law, bankruptcy, Indian law, administrative law, and environmental law.

Elliott’s scholarship focuses on the role of courts and agencies in a democratic society.