Michael Helfand is an associate professor at Pepperdine University School of Law and associate director of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies. His primary research interests are law & religion, arbitration and constitutional law, with a particular focus on religious arbitration, religious litigation, and political theories of tolerance and multiculturalism. Professor Helfand received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 2009. Prior to joining the Pepperdine law faculty in 2010, Professor Helfand was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where his practice focused on complex commercial litigation. Before entering private practice, Professor Helfand clerked for the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Law Review Publications
Litigating Religion, Boston University Law Review (2013)
This article considers how parties should resolve disputes that turn on religious doctrine and practice...
Religion's Footnote Four: Church Autonomy as Arbitration, Minnesota Law Review (2013)
While the Supreme Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC has been hailed as an unequivocal...
Religious Arbitration and the New Multiculturalism: Negotiating Conflicting Legal Orders, New York University Law Review (2011)
This Article considers a trend towards what I have termed the "new multiculturalism," where conflicts...
Fighting for the Debtor's Soul: Regulating Religious Commercial Conduct, George Mason Law Review (2011)
Although courts often think of religion in terms of faith, prayer, and conscience, many religious...
How the Diversity Rationale Lays the Groundwork for New Discrimination: Examining the Trajectory of Equal Protection Doctrine, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2009)
This Article advocates differentiating between two distinct categories of equal protection cases. The first-what I...
Other Academic Publications
A Liberalism of Sincerity: The Role of Religion in the Public Square, Journal of Law, Religion and State (2013)
This article considers the extent to which the liberal nation-state ought to accommodate religious practices...
What is a "Church"?: Implied Consent and the Contraception Mandate, Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues (2013)
This Article considers the “religious employer” exception to the “contraception mandate” – that is, the...
Purpose, Precedent, and Politics: Why Concepcion Covers Less than You Think, Yearbook on Arbitration & Mediation (2012)
This article sketches some possible limitations on the impact AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion will have...
Symposium Introduction: The Competing Claims of Law and Religion: Who Should Influence Whom?, Pepperdine Law Review (2012)
This introduction provides a preface to the Pepperdine Law Review symposium from the Third Annual...