Education

• JD, summa cum laude, 2012, Tulane University
• BA, 2003, Yale University

Biography

Sam Brandao joined Tulane’s Civil Rights and Federal Practice Clinic in 2016 and became its director in February of 2024. His supervisory docket includes a variety of civil rights litigation, with substantial focus in recent years on police violence and on housing and employment discrimination cases. Sam’s research focuses on the intersections of civil rights law with artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, neuroscience, and end-of-life medical care.

Before joining Tulane’s faculty, Sam clerked for U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the Eastern District of Louisiana and for Judge Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He then completed a two-year Skadden Fellowship at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services in New Orleans. As a staff attorney there, he litigated housing discrimination cases on behalf of persons with disabilities. Sam is a musician and former high school English teacher.