Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Professor Dan Kelly teaches and writes in the areas of property law, remedies, and wills, trusts, and estates. He is also a co-founder and co-director (with Professor Margaret Brinig) of the Notre Dame Law and Economics Program. A member of the American Law Institute, Kelly serves as an associate reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of Property. During spring 2016, he was a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Kelly’s research focuses on the economic analysis of property law, including the assembly of land for economic development, the sharing and division of property among multiple parties through contracts, leases, and trusts, and the transfer of wealth at death. He has presented two articles at the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum: “Strategic Spillovers,” published in the Columbia Law Review, and “The Right to Include,” published in the Emory Law Journal. His research on the government’s use of eminent domain has appeared in the Cornell Law Review, Harvard Law Review Forum, Supreme Court Economic Review, and Research Handbook on the Economic Analysis of Property Law. And he has written several articles on wills, trusts, and fiduciary law, including “Toward Economic Analysis of the Uniform Probate Code” and “Restricting Testamentary Freedom: Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Justifications.”
Kelly has served as a referee for a number of journals, law reviews, and university presses, including the American Law & Economics Review, European Association of Law & Economics, Harvard Law Review, Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, Journal of Legal Analysis, Review of Law & Economics, Society for Institutional & Organizational Economics, University of Chicago Law Review, University of Chicago Press, Yale Law Journal, and Yale University Press. He is a frequent lecturer on property at the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) Law Institute. At Notre Dame, he also serves as a faculty advisor for the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) Program, a faculty fellow at the Research Program on Law and Market Behavior, and a member of the Faculty Board on Athletics.
Before joining the NDLS faculty, Kelly was a clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and a fellow at Yale and Harvard Law School. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Notre Dame.
Florida Office Managing Attorney, Institute for Justice
Justin Pearson is the Institute’s Florida Office Managing Attorney. He also coordinates aspects of the Institute’s national economic liberty efforts and personally directs IJ’s National Street Vending Initiative. Justin has devoted his career to vindicating the constitutional rights of small-business owners, and he has victoriously litigated on their behalf in trial and appellate courts across the nation.
Justin often wins in novel ways. He was the lead counsel in a federal appellate court victory vindicating the right of a Florida dairy creamery to tell the truth on its labels, which was the first victorious First Amendment challenge to a food standard of identity in U.S. history. His win against Little Rock’s ban on taxi competition was based on a provision in the Arkansas Constitution that had not been successfully relied upon in over half a century. And his victory against Fort Pierce’s food truck ban included the first preliminary injunction ever issued in this type of challenge anywhere in the nation.
In addition to litigation, Justin has testified to Florida Senate and House committees dozens of times, and provisions suggested by Justin have been enacted into law. The successful bills that Justin has actively supported include Florida’s 2021 cottage food, home-based business, and local occupational licensing reforms, Florida’s historic 2020 occupational licensing reform (which repealed the most occupational licensing barriers in U.S. history), Florida’s 2019 repeal of the certificate of need requirement for hospitals, Florida’s 2019 Fresh Start reform making it easier for individuals with criminal records to obtain employment, and Florida’s 2016 overhaul of its civil forfeiture laws.
Justin’s work has appeared in countless media outlets, and Justin has spoken to scores of law schools and attorney organizations across the nation. The law schools that have hosted Justin’s talks include Yale, the University of Chicago, Duke, NYU, Notre Dame, and the University of Michigan, among many others.
Prior to joining IJ, Justin founded and managed his own law practice to advocate for small-business owners, and Justin’s law practice was successful for many years before he made the decision to join IJ in 2012 to better fight against government power gone awry.
Justin received his law degree with honors from the University of Miami in 2002, where he was the Research and Writing Editor for, and was published in, the University of Miami Business Law Review. Justin received his undergraduate degree in business management from North Carolina State University. Justin has been honored by the Daily Business Review and Law.com for being one of South Florida’s “Most Effective Lawyers.”
