David Elder
Professor of Law
"Like all Chase Faculty, I love taching and interacting with students. Each new group of students challenges me to be creative as a teacher and energizes and stimulates my scholarship. For over thirty years I have had an open door for students. Drop by (Room 517) and chat about Torts or any other interests or concerns at any time. I also have an open classroom. If you know of anyone thinking about law school or interested in what you as a law student will be encountering (parent, sibling, significant other, friend), feel free to bring her or him to class. I promise not to call on her or him!"
Contact
- Office: NH517
- Email: elderd@nku.edu
- Phone: 859.572.5520
- Fax: 859.572.5342
Education
- BA, Bellarmine College
- JD, St Louis University School of Law
- LLM, Columbia University
Courses Taught
- Torts I
- Torts II
- Constitutional Law/Media Liability Seminar
- Products Liability
- Law Review
Profile
Professor David A. Elder, Regents Professor of Law since 1997, teaches Torts I, Torts II, and a Constitutional Law/Media Liability Seminar and is co-advisor to the Northern Kentucky Law Review. He is admitted to practice in Rhode Island and before the United States Supreme Court. His scholarship includes seven books and numerous articles focusing primarily on the law of defamation and privacy, with particular emphasis on the intersection of defamation and privacy with First Amendment freedom of expression. Professor Elder's publications, including two treatises by Thompson/West/Reuters supplemented annually, Defamation: A Lawyer's Guide (2003) and Privacy Torts (2002), have been extensively cited by courts and other scholars. A leading Torts casebook has a dozen citations to his work (and another thirteen in the teacher's manual). Professor Elder has been involved in ground-breaking litigation on media liability issues, including plaintiff victories in media tortious news-gathering and "hidden camera" cases before the California Supreme Court, Sanders v. American Broadcasting Company and Shulman v. Group W Productions. In the fall of 2008 he was interviewed by a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and quoted in an article dealing with electronic surveillance of vacation homes.
Professor Elder has taught at Chase College of Law for thirty-one years. Prior to coming to Chase, he taught at Oklahoma City University School of Law and the U.S. Naval Academy while on active duty in the Navy JAGC. Professor Elder has three daughters - Ellen (35), Maeve (22), and Claire (20) - and is married to Monica R. Bohlen, who practices law in Ohio and Kentucky. For over twenty years (1985-2006), Professor Elder and his family operated a seasonal inn in scenic West Cork, Ireland in an 18th century country house with a view of the ocean that he and his family rescued from dereliction.
Latest Publications
"Hostile Environment" Charges and the ABA/AALS Accreditation/Membership Imbroglio, Postmodernism's "No Country for Old Men": Why Defamed Law Professors Should "Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", Rutgers J.L. & Pub. Pol' (2009)
A Libel Law Analysis of Media Abuses in Reporting on the Duke Lacrosse Fabricated Rape Charges, 11 VAND. J. ENT. & TECH. L. 99 (2008)
Truth, Accuracy and Neutral Reportage: Beheading the Media Jabberwock's Attempts to Circumvent New York Times v. Sullivan, 9 VAND. J. ENT. & TECH. L. 551 (2007)
Small Town Police Forces, Other Governmental Entities and the Misapplication of the First Amendment to the Small Group Defamation Theory - A Plea for Fundamental Fairness for Mayberry, 6 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 944 (2004)
Defamation: A Lawyer's Guide, West (2003) and annual supplements 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008
Public Service
Pro bono consultant on defamation, privacy, and other research projects.
Peer reviewer, South Carolina Law Review pilot project.
Member, Thompson/West Key Authors program to provide commentary to the media on defamation and privacy topics.