Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson is a Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School.  Professor Ferguson teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, and a seminar examining police surveillance technologies, privacy, and civil rights.

Professor Ferguson is a national expert on predictive policing, facial recognition, video analytics, big data surveillance, the Internet of Things, juries, and the Fourth Amendment. He has written over 35 law review articles and book chapters which have appeared in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the California Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Cornell Law Review, the Texas Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, the Northwestern Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review, among others. Professor Ferguson is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and was an Advisor to the ALI Principles of the Law, Policing Project.

Professor Ferguson is the author of four books. His most recent book, Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance (2026), reveals how smart devices and digital surveillance alter criminal prosecution. Professor Ferguson’s 2017 book, The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement, won the Association of American Publishers 2018 PROSE AWARD for Law and Legal Studies. His first book, Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizen’s Guide to Constitutional Action, is the first book written for jurors on jury duty. He also stars in the “Welcome To Jury Duty Video” in DC Superior Court seen by more than 30,000 citizens annually. Finally, he has written a helpful book for incoming 1L students called The Law of Law School: The Essential Guide for First Year Law Students.

His legal commentary has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, the Economist, the Washington Post, CNN, NPR, Time, USA Today, the ABA Journal, the Atlantic, and other national and international newspapers, magazines, and media sites.

Prior to the George Washington University Law School, Professor Ferguson taught at American University, Washington College of Law, and the UDC David. A. Clarke School of Law. Prior to academia, Professor Ferguson worked as a supervising attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. As a public defender for seven years, he represented adults and juveniles in serious felony cases ranging from homicide to misdemeanor offenses. In addition to participating as lead counsel in numerous jury and bench trials, he argued cases before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Before joining the Public Defender Service, Professor Ferguson was awarded the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship at the Georgetown Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic. For two years as a Prettyman Fellow, he taught and supervised third-year clinical students involved in the criminal justice clinic. Immediately after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law (summa cum laude), he clerked for the Honorable Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

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