Mr. Durchslag joined the faculty in 1970 after practicing law in Chicago and then with the Cleveland Legal Aid Society. He teaches courses in constitutional law and in state and local government. His main scholarly interest has been in constitutional law and particularly federal/state ("federalism") issues. His recent book State Sovereign Immunity (Praeser Press 2002) explores a subset of that issue, the Eleventh Amendment. His most recent articles include "The Federalist Papers in the Supreme Court: Is There Less Here than Meets The Eye," William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2005), "Forgotten Federalism: The Takings Clause and Local Land Use Decisions," Maryland Law Review (2000), "Accommodation by Declaration," Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review (2000), and "Euclid v. Ambler Realty Seventy Five Years Later: This Is Not Your Father's Zoning Ordinance," Case Western Reserve Law Review (2001).

Although we were not successful in all of our efforts, this experience taught me several things about lawyers and what lawyers can achieve if they work hard enough and are sufficiently creative. First, lawyers can have an enormous impact on the development of the law. Good lawyers are not simply bystanders in the judicial or legislative development of law. Lawyers actually make law by their unique conceptual insights and persuasive abilities. Second, the more courage that lawyers have in their convictions and the more they can empathize (without necessarily agreeing) with the reasons that brought their client to them, the more effective advocates they are. Finally, and as a result of the forgoing, lawyers, perhaps more than any other profession, can be a force for positive change in a society which, like ours, is committed to the rule of law. In my teaching I try to communicate the positive role that lawyers can play both in asserting and protecting their clients' interests, and, more generally, in the lawmaking process. This requires not only a sense of idealism regarding a lawyer's potential contribution, but a firm grounding the doctrinal, historical and philosophical underpinnings of the subject area. Moreover, because I believe so strongly in the positive role that lawyers can and indeed should play in shaping our future, I try not to create any illusions about the difficulty in developing the skills and understandings necessary to make those contributions.