Quinn Yeargain 19L

1855 Professor of the Law of Democracy & Associate Professor of Law, Michigan State University | Chair, Student-Alumni Committee

Professor Quinn Yeargain (they/he) is an expert in state constitutional law and studies the relationship between the organization of state government institutions and the development of policy outcomes in different areas of law. They have published in the areas of criminal law, environmental law, and state government more generally, and their current project focuses on the role of democracy in policy formation.

Professor Yeargain graduated from the Emory University School of Law with High Honors and as a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow. While at Emory, they served as the executive online editor of the Emory Law Journal and as the executive editor of the Emory Law Supreme Court Advocacy Program. After graduation, they clerked for Judge R. Lanier Anderson, III, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Macon, Georgia. Professor Yeargain then served as the associate director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and was appointed as a Lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment in the Spring 2022 semester.

Outside of the classroom, Professor Yeargain enjoys hiking, jazz and ragtime music, playing board games (especially Clue and Reverse), and reading murder mysteries.