Elizabeth Cavanagh
Professor of Law
Director, SJD Program
Elizabeth A. Cavanagh is the Director of the Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) Program at º£½Ç»»ÆÞ Washington College of Law. In that role, she teaches the Doctoral Colloquium that SJD candidates attend during their first year in residency and supervises all candidates throughout their time in the Program.
Prior to joining the SJD Program in 2017, Professor Cavanagh taught Legal Rhetoric at WCL, as well as a law school course on appellate advocacy. She spent several years as an appellate and trial court litigator with Jenner & Block in Washington, DC. Professor Cavanagh served as a law clerk to Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court. She attended Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, where she was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Prof. Cavanagh is the chair of Making Every Vote Count, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to reforming the U.S. presidential election system. She also serves on the boards of the Historical Society of the DC Circuit and the Legal Resource Center on Violence Against Women. Prof. Cavanagh is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia and Maryland and is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court.