Professor Andrew W. Jurs

Andrew W. Jurs is the Richard M. and Anita Calkins Distinguished Professor of Law at Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa. He teaches Expert Evidence, Evidence, Criminal Procedure – Investigation, Criminal Procedure – Adjudication, and Criminal Law. In 2020, he received the Stevens Faculty Scholar of the Year award at Drake, and has twice been named the Forrest Outstanding Professor of the Year by the graduating class, in 2018 and 2014. Prior to entering academia, he was an Assistant Attorney General at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and a Deputy District Attorney in the Denver area.

His research agenda investigates the management and evaluation of expert evidence in the judicial system using an empirical approach. His most recent publication is a textbook on use of expert witnesses in court, Expert Evidence, published in 2019 by Carolina Academic Press. Notable articles include A Tale of Two Dauberts: Discriminatory Effects of Scientific Reliability Screening, 79 Ohio State Law Journal 1107 (2018) (coauthored); Expert Prevalence, Persuasion and Price: What Trial Participants Really Think About Experts, 91 Indiana Law Journal 353 (2016); An Overreaction to a Nonexistent Problem: Empirical Analysis of Tort Reform from the 1980s to 2000s, 3 Stanford Journal of Complex Litigation 62 (2015) (coauthored); Gatekeeper with a Gavel: A Survey on Judicial Management of Challenges to Expert Reliability and Their Relationship to Summary Judgment, 83 Mississippi Law Journal 325 (2014); Et Tu, Plaintiffs? An Empirical Analysis of Daubert’s Effect on Plaintiffs, and Why Gatekeeping Standards Matter (a Lot), 66 Arkansas Law Review 975 (2013) (coauthored); The Stricter Standard: An Empirical Assessment of Daubert’s Effect on Civil Defendants, 62 Catholic University Law Review 675 (2013) (coauthored); Questions from the Bench and Independent Experts: A Study of the Practices of State Court Judges, 74 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 47 (2012); and Balancing Legal Process with Scientific Expertise: A Comparative Assessment of Expert Witness Methodology in Five Nations, and Suggestions for Reform of Post-Daubert U.S. Reliability Determinations, 95 Marquette Law Review 1329 (2012).

Professor Jurs was recently appointed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Organization of Scientific Area Committees’ Legal Task Group, and previously served as a member of the executive committee of the AALS Section on Evidence with a term as chair in 2017-2018.