David E. Aaronson is Professor of Law and B. J. Tennery Scholar at Washington College of Law (WCL), The American University, Washington D.C. He is Director of WCL's nationally recognized Trial Advocacy and Advocacy LL.M. Programs. His areas of specialization include: Criminal and Civil Trial Advocacy, Evidence, and Criminal Law and Procedure. Professor Aaronson has authored or co-authored eight books and monographs and numerous articles on topics, such as criminal jury instructions, crime victims' rights and remedies, cross-racial eye witness identification, the insanity defense, and the death penalty.

In 1975, Aaronson published Maryland's first book of pattern criminal jury instructions. The two volume Third Edition (2009) was updated annually in cumulative supplements through 2013. The revised 2014 - 2015 Edition is published in two volumes, soft-bound and will be republished annually with updates. With its extensive and in-depth commentary, this work is two-books-in-one, a set of pattern criminal jury instructions and a treatise on Maryland Criminal Law and related topics in Evidence and Criminal Procedure.

Professor Aaronson is a past chair of the Maryland State Bar Association's Section of Criminal Law and Practice and, currently, is an ex officio member. He is a member, former co-chair and chair of the ABA's Criminal Justice Section's Rules of Criminal Procedure, Evidence, and Police Practices Committee. He has served on the executive committee of the Association of American Law School's Criminal Justice Section. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Foundation. He received the Robert C. Heeney Award in 1999 (presented "to those individuals exemplifying the highest professional standards and achievement in the field of criminal law during their distinguished careers") from the Maryland State Bar Association, Section of Criminal Law and Practice. He has been honored as The American University Scholar/Teacher of the Year and twice honored by WCL as "Outstanding Teacher". In 2011, he received WCL's Pauline Ruyle Moore Scholar Award in recognition of his scholarly work.

Professor Aaronson received an LL.B. (1964) from Harvard Law School and an LL.M. (1965) from Georgetown University Graduate Law Center, serving as an E. Barrett Prettyman Graduate Teaching Fellow, Criminal Justice Clinic. He received his B.A. (1961), M.A. (1964), and Ph.D. (1970) (economics) from George Washington University