Deborah Jones Merritt is a Distinguished University Professor Emerita. She has published widely on issues of equality, affirmative action, federalism, health and technology, legal education, tort reform, and law and social science. Professor Merritt and fellow Moritz professor Ric Simmons published Learning Evidence: From the Federal Rules to the Courtroom, a text that offers a new pedagogy for teaching the basic Evidence course and is now in its fourth edition. Her current research focuses on identifying the knowledge and skills that new lawyers need to serve clients effectively in practice, as well as on the pedagogies and workplace structures needed to develop that competence.  

Before joining the faculty at Ohio State in 1995, Professor Merritt practiced law in Atlanta and served as professor of law, professor of women’s studies, and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Illinois. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School. Professor Merritt clerked for The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Professor Merritt has been honored as an Ohio State University Distinguished Lecturer, University Distinguished Scholar, and Distinguished Teacher. She has also won university-wide awards for Distinguished Diversity Enhancement and Distinguished Faculty Service. In addition, she served as the university’s commencement speaker in Autumn 2004. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court invited her to defend the lower-court judgment in Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick, a prominent copyright class action.