David A. Hoffman
Professor of Law

Dave Hoffman specializes in behavioral law and economics, empirical legal studies, and private dispute resolution, with a particular doctrinal focus on the law of fraud, contract and corporations. He currently teaches contracts, civil procedure, corporations, and law and economics. Hoffman writes for the popular legal blog, Concurring Opinions, and is a member of the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School.

With other investigators at the Cultural Cognition Project, Professor Hoffman recently co-authored a paper on how the perceived benefits and risks of political demonstrations are contingent on our values.  Other projects in the same vein include an experimental paper on how individuals' values influence their perceptions of fact in civil rights cases and their attitudes about wrongdoing more generally. 

In other work, Professor Hoffman has explored the dispute resolution system using quantitative analysis.  Focusing on court dockets, he has co-authored the first comprehensive study of litigation in which plaintiffs seek to "pierce the corporate veil," a paper on privacy litigation in federal court, an analysis of the relationship between motion practice and settlement, a paper on why judges write opinions, an analysis of the meaning of materiality under the securities law, and a study on how Wikipedians resolve their disputes.

Finally, Professor Hoffman writes in the area of moral psychology, with a focus on contract law.  He has written about the manner in which corporate managers may "self-handicap" and how consumers react to puffery.  In recent work, he has used experimental work to explore why individuals dislike breach of contract, when they will take precautions against breach, and how damages will be awarded.

Hoffman's current research includes projects on the networked structure of causes of action in civil complaints, the moral psychology of contracting, and the relationship between civil procedure and contract law.

Prior to joining academia, Professor Hoffman practiced law with Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, LLP.  He clerked for Judge Norma L. Shapiro, of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude, and his B.A. in archaeology and history from Yale College, cum laude.

In 2012, Professor Hoffman was the subject of a Faculty Focus video, which can be viewed here.

Education
J.D., Harvard Law School
B.A., Yale University

Teaching Areas
Law and Economics, Civil Procedure, Contracts, Corporations, International Dispute Resolution, Law and Human Behavior



Working Papers

• Instructing Juries on Noneconomic Contract Damages (with Radus)
• Building a Taxonomy of Litigation: Clusters of Causes of Action in Federal Civil Complaints (with Boyd, Obradovic, and Ristovski)
• Unlawful Persuasion
• The Default Rules of Procedure

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