Professor Adamson is the David L. & Ann Brennan Professor of Law, and Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion. His areas of expertise are mass media and First Amendment law, and he has practiced extensively in re-entry advocacy, housing, mortgage lending and consumer protection. Professor Adamson rejoins Case Law from Seattle University School of Law, where the taught for 18 years, including service as Director of its nationally ranked Clinical Program. Professor Adamson has authored scores of articles in publications ranging from Yale Law and Policy Review and Harvard Journal of Racial and Ethnic Justice. His most recent publications include Debt Bondage: How Private Collection Agencies Keep the Formerly Incarcerated Tethered to the Criminal Justice System Nw. J. L. & SOC. POL'y VOL. 15 (2020), Reconsidering Pre-Indictment Media Publicity: Racialized Crime News, Grand Juries and Tamir Rice 8 ALA. CIV. RTS. & CIV. LIBERTIES L. REV. 1 (2017), and “Thugs,” “Crooks,” and “Rebellious Negroes”: Racist and Racialized Distortions in Media Coverage of Michael Brown and the Ferguson Demonstrations , 32 HARV. J. ON RACIAL & ETHNIC JUSTICE 189 (2016). In 2016, Professor Adamson bestowed the William Pincus Award for Excellence in Clinical Legal Education by the Association of American Law Schools, and that same year was awarded the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship.
Immediately after graduating Case Law, Professor Adamson practiced in the Litigation Department of Squire Patton Boggs (then Squire Sanders and Dempsey), and as an Assistant Prosecutor for Cuyahoga County. He returned to Case in 1995 as a professor in the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center, where he and his students practiced civil litigation, defending homeowners in foreclosure actions and against predatory lending practices. During his Case tenure he also served as Assistant Dean for Student Services. He has held visiting appointments at Washington University (St. Louis) and the University of Michigan Law School.