Lucian E. Dervan
Criminal Justice Section Member-at-Large (2020 – 2023)
Professor of Law and Director of Criminal Justice Studies
Belmont University College of Law, Nashville, Tennessee
Emory University School of Law, J.D. 2002
Lucian E. Dervan is a Professor of Law and Director of Criminal Justice Studies at Belmont University College of Law in Nashville, Tennessee, where his work focuses on domestic and international criminal law. His writings include two books and dozens of book chapters and articles. He is also the founder and author of The Plea Bargaining Blog and a contributing editor to the White Collar Crime Prof Blog (a member of the Law Professor Blogs Network). Professor Dervan regularly lectures regarding criminal law and has testified before the United States House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee on two occasions and recently provided insights regarding plea bargaining before the Federal Senate of Brazil.
Professor Dervan’s two main areas of research are plea bargaining and white-collar crime. His plea-bargaining research focuses on the dominance of plea bargaining today, the global growth of plea bargaining, and false confessions in the plea-bargaining context. Professor Dervan’s plea bargaining research includes the creation of interdisciplinary psychological studies to gain better insights into the decision-making processes of defendants and research to expose and explain the symbiotic relationship between plea bargaining and over-criminalization. His white-collar crime research focuses on the complex issues arising during cross-border investigations, including during corporate internal investigations.
In addition to his scholarly pursuits, Professor Dervan currently serves as Chair of the American Bar Association Commission on the American Jury and Immediate Past Chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section. He is also the founder and Chair of the ABA CJS Global White-Collar Crime Institute, serves on the Advisory Committee of the NACDL White Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson, and is a member of the American Bar Foundation.
Prior to joining the academy, Professor Dervan served as a law clerk to the Honorable Phyllis A. Kravitch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He also practiced law with King & Spalding LLP and Ford & Harrison LLP. At King & Spalding LLP, Professor Dervan was a member of the Special Matters and Government Investigations team.
Professor Dervan was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his Juris Doctorate with High Honors from Emory University School of Law in 2002. He received his Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Davidson College. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and two young children.