Peter J. Hammer

Peter J. Hammer is the A. Alfred Taubman Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.

Hammer co-authored with Trevor Coleman Judge Damon J. Keith’s biography, Crusader for Justice: Federal Judge Damon J. Keith (2013). With Edward J. Littlejohn, he co-authored "No Equal Justice" The Legacy of Civil Rights Icon George W. Crocket Jr (2022).

Hammer has become a leading voice on the economic and social issues impacting the city of Detroit, and has added new courses to the law school curriculum on "Race, Law and Social Change in Southeast Michigan," "Re-Imagining Development in Detroit: Institutions, Law & Society" and "Movement Lawyering."

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Hammer has spent more than 25 years engaging issues of human rights, law and development in Cambodia. He is presently a board member of the Center for Khmer Studies. When in Southeast Michigan rather than Southeast Asia, Hammer is equally engaged in the community. He is a member of the board of directors of the Detroit Justice Center. He works actively with groups such as the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, We the People of Detroit and the Detroit People’s Platform.

Prior to entering academia, he was an associate at the Los Angeles office of O'Melveny & Myers, where he maintained an active practice in antitrust, health law and the presentation of expert economic testimony. Hammer earned his undergraduate degree at Gonzaga University and completed his professional and graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where he earned a J.D. and a Ph.D. (economics). Before entering private practice, he clerked for the Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin, former chief judge of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals