[2] Alexander received an undergraduate degree at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, graduating in 1970.
[3] After graduating, Alexander clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, after which he studied at the University of Chicago Law School as a Bigelow Fellow.
[2] Alexander began teaching at the University of Georgia School of Law after studying as a Bigelow Fellow.
[2] In 1997, Alexander received the American Publishers Association's 1997 Best Book of the Year in Law award for his work, Commodity and Propriety.
[2] Alexander is a member of the American Law Institute,[4] American Society for Legal History, Law & Society Association, and Order of the Coif.