Harry Litman is a lawyer, law professor, and legal commentator.
He is the former United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He served previously as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice, an Assistant United States Attorney, and a Special Assistant United States Attorney.
He is the creator, host, and executive producer of the Talking Feds podcast, a roundtable with prominent political and legal figures discussing issues of the day as well as foundational issues in law and government. The franchise also includes a “Talking Books” series, which comprises extended interviews with authors of the leading books of the day.
Litman is the current legal affairs columnmist for the Los Angeles Times opinion page. From 2018-2020, he was a contributing columnist for the Washington Post. He has contributed commentary to many other national publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Lawfare.
Litman is a frequent commentator on legal issues on MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, BBC News, and France 24.
Litman is affiliated with the law firm Constantine Cannon, where he specializes in False Claims Act litigation. He also maintains a small independent private practice with specialties in white collar criminal defense, constitutional law, and appellate law.
He is listed in “Best Lawyers in America,” in 3 separate categories, “Commercial Litigation,” “White Collar Criminal Defense,” and “Qui Tam Law.”
Litman teaches constitutional law at U.C.L.A. and U.C.S.D. He previously taught at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and the law schools of Georgetown, Rutgers, University of Pittsburgh, and UC Berkeley. He has published a number of articles on constitutional law, criminal law, and federalism.
He is active in the community and serves on the Regional Leadership Councils of Brady and the boards of the Constitutional Accountability Center and the San Diego branch of Jewish Family Services.
In July, 2000, Litman was nominated by the President to a federal judgeship on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, but the Senate adjourned without taking action on the nomination.
Litman received his B.A. from Harvard University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. Litman thereafter served as a law clerk to Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court; and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court.
Contact Harry at commlead@usc.edu.