Michael DeBow

Michael DeBow is a retired professor of law who taught from 1988 to 2024 at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. In 2018, he was appointed the inaugural Stephen Everett Wells Professor of Municipal Law.

After a time in private practice, Michael was a law clerk to Judge Kenneth Starr of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He then worked on the staffs of the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and the head of the U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division, both during the Reagan administration. He began his teaching career at the University of Georgia business school in 1987.

He also served in a part-time capacity as a policy analyst for three Alabama attorneys general and was the associate director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity from 2014 to 2016.

He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Alabama, and a law degree from Yale University.