David Rubenstein

David Rubenstein joined the KU Law faculty in August 2026. He teaches courses in constitutional law, administrative law, artificial intelligence and legislation. His scholarship focuses on AI governance, federal preemption, state regulation of federal contractors and the structural dynamics of executive power. Rubenstein’s scholarship has been published in the Michigan Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review and other journals. His work is widely cited, including by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2026 and other judicial opinions. 

Before entering academia, Rubenstein served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Barbara Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and practiced commercial litigation in the New York office of King & Spalding.

Rubenstein is active in professional and academic service. He served as a council member of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and as editor-in-chief of Administrative & Regulatory Law News. He received the Section’s Volunteer of the Year Award in 2020. On matters of AI governance, he regularly consults with university administrators and policymakers at all levels of government, and currently serves on the Kansas Judicial System’s Ad Hoc AI Committee.

Before joining the KU faculty, Rubenstein was the James R. Ahrens Chair in Constitutional Law and Director of the Robert J. Dole Center for Law and Government at Washburn University School of Law.