
Bigelow Fellows
Fellows
Lecturers in Law
Daniel Wilf-Townsend
Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellow, Lecturer in LawBiography
Daniel (Danny) Wilf-Townsend is a Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law. His research lies primarily in the fields of civil procedure, federal courts, and consumer protection, with a particular focus on how our nation's civil justice systems handle the numerous smaller-scale disputes that arise in commerce and everyday life. His current projects examine issues related to unrepresented defendants in high-volume civil disputes, such as debt collection or foreclosure litigation. Danny's work has been published or is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, and Stanford Law Review Online, and has been cited by federal district and circuit courts confronting questions of Article III standing and personal jurisdiction.
Before becoming a Bigelow Fellow, Danny was a litigator at Gupta Wessler, PLLC, where he primarily represented consumers, workers, and public entities in class actions and constitutional litigation. In that role, Danny briefed or argued dozens of cases in courts around the country, at every level of the federal judiciary and in several state courts. Danny holds a BA from Yale College and JD from Yale Law School. After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Marsha Berzon on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Jeffrey Meyer on the US District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Education
Yale Law School
JD, 2015
Coker Fellow (Constitutional Law)
Board Member & Prize Finalist, Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals
Veterans Legal Services Clinic
Nanjing University
Fulbright Fellow, Comparative Philosophy Department, 2011
Yale College
BA, magna cum laude, Ethics, Politics & Economics, 2010
Experience
University of Chicago Law School
Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellow & Lecturer in Law, 2020-present
Gupta Wessler, PLLC
Of Counsel (2019-2020)
Justice Catalyst Fellow (2018-2019)
Fellow in Appellate and Constitutional Litigation (2017-2018)
Summer Associate (2014)
Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, US District Court, District of Connecticut
Law Clerk, 2016-2017
Judge Marsha S. Berzon, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Law Clerk, 2015-2016
Department of Justice, Constitutional Torts Office
Intern, summer 2013
Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
Investigative Intern, spring 2012
Justice Carlos R. Moreno, Supreme Court of California
Extern, summer 2009
Presentations
- Civil Procedure Workshop Summer 2021 Works-in-Progress Series, Assembly-Line Plaintiffs (July 2021)
- Law & Political Economy Workshop: Power and Procedure, Class-Action Boundaries (Jan. 2021)
- Sixth Annual Civil Procedure Workshop, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Civil Justice for Unrepresented Defendants (Oct. 2020)
- Junior Scholars' Colloquium, The University of Chicago Law School, Civil Justice for Unrepresented Defendants (Oct. 2020)
- Chicagoland Junior Scholars Conference 2020, Northern Illinois University College of Law, Civil Justice for Unrepresented Defendants (Oct. 2020)
- The Second Annual Consumer Law Scholars Conference, University of California Berkeley Law School, Negotiating With Networks (March 2020)
- Fifth Annual Civil Procedure Workshop, University of Texas at Austin School of Law, The Geographic Scope of Class Actions (Oct. 2019)
Memberships and Professional Affiliations
Bar admissions: Washington, DC; California