About
Professor Joe Dunman teaches Torts and Lawyering Skills. He has previously taught Constitutional Law, Employment Law, and Civil Rights & Liberties. His scholarly interests include religious rights and accommodation, employment law, criminal procedure, and the law of Kentucky. He has published articles in the West Virginia Law Review, Pace Law Review, Louisville Law Review, and others. He is also the author of the free, open-access casebook Religion in the Law, first published in 2021 with a second edition anticipated in 2023.
Prior to teaching at the University of Louisville, Professor Dunman served as the Managing Attorney for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, the state agency responsible for enforcing the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, which prohibits class-based discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. While at the Commission, Professor Dunman authored or co-authored several amicus briefs on behalf of the agency (filed in both state and federal appellate courts). He also initiated the first significant update of the agency’s regulatory code in nearly thirty years.
Before joining the Commission, Dunman taught for five years as an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at Morehead State University in Kentucky. His classes there included Torts, Legal Research & Writing I & II, Law & Individual Rights, Employment Law, Administrative Law, and multiple seminars on Constitutional Law. In 2018, he taught a month-long comparative law course at King’s College in London, England with the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad. Professor Dunman also served on the Morehead State Faculty Senate, was the coordinator of the school’s annual Constitution Day celebration, and helped dozens of graduates achieve law school admission as Pre-Law Advisor. A student favorite, he twice received the prestigious Apple Award for Educational Excellence from the Student Government Association and was a nominee for Faculty of the Year in 2022.
Professor Dunman began his legal career as a private attorney in Louisville, Kentucky with the firm formerly known as Clay Daniel Walton & Adams. His primary areas of practice included employment law, civil rights, constitutional law, and administrative law. While there, Professor Dunman had the privilege to represent the plaintiffs in the Kentucky marriage equality cases of Bourke v. Beshear and Love v. Beshear, which were consolidated under the banner of Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark civil rights decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Dunman has briefed, argued, and won cases at every level of the state and federal court systems, including the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Kentucky Supreme Court, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
A proud product of Kentucky’s excellent universities, Professor Dunman received his J.D. from the University of Louisville in 2012, where he earned top class grades in Criminal Law, Trial Practice, Law & Literature, and Public Utility Law. In 2001, he graduated cum laude from Murray State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and History. He lives in Louisville with his wife and daughter and serves on the board of directors of House of Ruth, a local non-profit housing provider for people living with AIDS and HIV.
