David Frank Levi (born August 29, 1951)[1] is an American jurist and former Dean of the Duke University School of Law.
[3] At the time Levi left the bench, he was widely considered to be one of the top federal judges in the nation.
[3] In 1994 Levi was appointed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist to the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
He was the first president and a founder of the Milton L. Schwartz American Inn of Court, now the Schwartz-Levi American Inn of Court, at the King Hall School of Law, University of California at Davis, and has served as Chair of the Ninth Circuit's Task Force on Race, Religious and Ethnic Fairness and as the President of the Ninth Circuit District Judges Association.
When Levi stepped down as dean of Duke Law School on June 30, 2018, he became the inaugural director of the school's Carl and Susan Bolch Judicial Institute[13] founded that year with the mission of "advancing the importance of rule-of-law principles and a fair and independent judiciary and raising public awareness during lapses or failures in the rule of law.
[17][18] He worked for Justice Samuel Alito during October Term 2011 and served as chief of staff to Attorney General Bill Barr.