Michael Helfand

Michael A. Helfand is the Brenden Mann Foundation Chair in Law and Religion and Co-Director of the Nootbaar Institute for Law, Religion and Ethics at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law as well as the Visiting Professor and Research Fellow in the Brodie Center for Jewish and Israeli Law at Yale Law School. His research considers how U.S. law treats religious law, custom and practice with a specific focus on the intersection between religion and commerce.

Professor Helfand’s academic articles have appeared in numerous law journals, including the Yale Law Journal, New York University Law Review, and Duke Law Journal. He also often provides media commentary on clashes between law and religion, writing for various public audience publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, City Journal and the Forward.

In addition to his academic positions, Professor Helfand is the Senior Legal Advisor to the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition, Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and executive board member of the Beth Din of America, where he also serves as a consultant on the enforceability of rabbinical arbitration agreements and awards in U.S. courts.

Prior to joining the faculty at Pepperdine, Professor Helfand was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell and clerked for the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, PhD in Political Science from Yale University and B.A. from Yeshiva College.