Biographical Sketch
Professor Overton is on leave.

Professor Overton specializes in voting rights and campaign finance and is currently writing a book about contemporary voting rights challenges that will be published by W.W. Norton. Prior to joining the Law School faculty, he was a member of the law faculty of the University of California, Davis, and served as the Charles Hamilton Houston Fellow at Harvard, where he co-taught a course on law and the political process. Before entering academia, he practiced law at Debevoise & Plimpton in Washington, D.C., where he worked on several widely noted cases, including investigations by Congress and the Justice Department into fundraising techniques employed by the Democratic National Committee. Professor Overton also served as a law clerk to Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His recent academic writings have been published by the Texas Law Review and University of Pennsylvania Law Review. His commentaries have appeared in the Washington Post, Roll Call, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times, among others. Professor Overton serves on the boards of the National Voting Rights Institute and Common Cause. He is also a member of the Jimmy Carter/James Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform and the DNC’s Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling.

Education
B.A., Hampton University; J.D., Harvard University