Biography
Professor Joe Dunman teaches Torts, Lawyering Skills, and Law & Religion at the Brandeis School of Law. His scholarly interests include religious rights and accommodation, employment law, criminal procedure, and Kentucky law. His articles have appeared in the Wayne Law Review, West Virginia Law Review, Pace Law Review, Louisville Law Review and other publications. He is also the author or co-author of two books: Religion in the Law, a free, open-access casebook first published in 2021; and Kentucky Labor and Employment Law, written with Ariana Levinson and Will Hilyerd, published by LexisNexis in 2025.
Prior to joining the Brandeis faculty, Professor Dunman served as managing attorney for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, where he authored and co-authored amicus briefs filed in state and federal appellate courts and initiated the first major update to the agency’s regulatory code in nearly three decades.
He previously served as an assistant professor of legal studies at Morehead State University, where he taught courses in torts, legal research and writing, constitutional law and employment law, among others. He twice received the Apple Award for Educational Excellence from the Student Government Association and was a nominee for Faculty of the Year in 2022. In 2018, he taught a comparative law course at King’s College in London with the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad.
Earlier in his career, Professor Dunman practiced law with Clay Daniel Walton & Adams in Louisville, focusing on employment law, civil rights, constitutional law and administrative law. He represented plaintiffs in Bourke v. Beshear and Love v. Beshear, two Kentucky marriage equality cases that were consolidated into Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark marriage equality decision. He has successfully briefed and argued cases before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Kentucky Supreme Court and the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
Professor Dunman is active in the Louisville community and has served as a board member for non-profit organizations including Louisville Public Media and House of Ruth.
Research Interests
Religious rights and accommodation, employment law, criminal procedure, and the law of Kentucky.
Degrees and Certifications
University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, Kentucky
Murray State University