Education
B.A., J.D., Harvard University; M.A., University of London

Biographical Sketch
Roger A. Fairfax, Jr. is a Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School where he teaches courses in criminal law, and constitutional and adjudicatory criminal procedure, and seminars on the grand jury, white-collar criminal investigations, and criminal justice policy. Professor Fairfax is also a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Law School Charles Hamilton Houston Institute where he works on criminal justice reform issues.

Fairfax conducts research on discretion in the criminal process, the grand jury, prosecutorial ethics and discretion, and criminal justice policy and reform. His scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in a number of leading journals and in his edited book, GRAND JURY 2.0: MODERN PERSPECTIVES ON THE GRAND JURY.

Before joining the Law School faculty, Fairfax served as a federal prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the United States in a broad range of public corruption investigations and prosecutions. During his time in the Attorney General’s Honors Program, he also served details as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and as special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of DOJ. Following his government service, Fairfax was a Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where his practice included white-collar criminal and regulatory defense, internal investigations, complex civil litigation, and strategic counseling, as well as pro bono indigent criminal defense, appellate, and civil rights litigation.

Fairfax has advised local, state, and national government officials and candidates on criminal justice policy and recently worked on criminal justice policy as a Senior Legislative Fellow with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. He has engaged in expert consultation and pro bono representation in a number of grand jury, trial, and appellate matters in state, federal, and foreign courts, and is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Massachusetts (inactive), Maryland, and a variety of federal trial and appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Fairfax formerly served on the governing council of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section, the board of trustees of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, and as chair of the Montgomery County Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission. He currently sits on the boards of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, the Bloomberg BNA White Collar Crime Report, and the Harvard Alumni Association. Fairfax is a member of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Professor Fairfax graduated with honors from Harvard College, the University of London, and Harvard Law School, where he served as commentaries chair of the Harvard Law Review and was awarded the Heyman Fellowship for Government Service. Professor Fairfax clerked for Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and for Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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