Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson

Derek Kiernan-Johnson studies the ethics of using narrative and visual rhetoric in legal persuasion and how judges make decisions and express them in writing. He teaches students how to dissect and synthesize law and fact, how to express and critique legal analysis and argumentation, and how to understand the American judicial opinion in historical and comparative context.

Derek went to public schools in Boulder, Colorado, and to college at Princeton University. At Princeton, he studied religion, dramatic performance, and music, writing Experiencing Toxcatl: an Ixiptla's Perspective (1996), a study of an Aztec sacrifice from the sacrificee's viewpoint, and Durch Sühn und Buß der Gnade Heil: Suffering and Salvation in the Operas of Richard Wagner (1997). He then studied English cathedral architecture at Wadham College at Oxford University before returning for law school at the University of Michigan. His studies at Michigan focused on constitutional law, education law, and meaning and performance in the law, the last interest of which culminated in Meaning in Miranda (1999).

After law school Derek returned to Colorado to clerk for Justice Michael L. Bender of the Colorado Supreme Court. He practiced law for six years at Caplan and Earnest, LLC, representing public-school clients in general-counsel, transactional, and litigation settings. Derek joined the CU Law faculty in 2007.

Derek enjoys spending time with his family, following UK & European soccer, hiking, cooking, playing billiards, enjoying beverages such as tea, beer, wine, and distillates, and identifying & tracking things like birds, cultural trends, and mammals.