David B. Wexler

David B. Wexler is Professor of Law at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Distinguished Research Professor of Law, Rogers College of Law, Tucson, Arizona. He is an Honorary President of the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence.

His books include Rehabilitating Lawyers:  Principles of Therapeutic Jurisprudence for Criminal Law Practice (Carolina Academic Press 2008); Judging in a Therapeutic Key:  Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Courts (with Bruce J. Winick) (Carolina Academic Press 2003); Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence:  Law as a Helping Profession (with Dennis P. Stolle and Bruce J. Winick) (Carolina Academic Press 2000); Law in a Therapeutic Key:  Developments in Therapeutic Jurisprudence (with Bruce J. Winick) (Carolina Academic Press 1996); Essays in Therapeutic Jurisprudence (with Bruce J. Winick) (Carolina Academic Press 1991); Therapeutic Jurisprudence:  The Law as a Therapeutic Agent (Carolina Academic Press 1990); and Mental Health Law:  Major Issues (Plenum Press 1981).

He received the American Psychiatric Association's Manfred S. Guttmacher Forensic Psychiatry Award; chaired the American Bar Association's Commission on Mental Disability and the Law; chaired the Association of American Law Schools Section on Law and Mental Disability; chaired the Advisory Board of the National Center for State Courts' Institute on Mental Disability and Law; was a member of the Panel on Legal Issues of the President's Commission on Mental Health; was a member of the National Commission on the Insanity Defense; served as Vice President of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health; received the New York University School of Law Distinguished Alumnus Legal Scholarship/Teaching Award; received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Center for State Courts; and served as a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mental Health and the Law. Professor Wexler has been named an Honorary Distinguished Member of the American Psychology-Law Society. In October, 2012, at its Congress in Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain, Wexler was named Honorary President of the Iberoamerican Association of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, an organization headquartered at the University of Vigo. For his work in Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Wexler was presented with the 2019 Alumni Achievement Award from Binghamton University. Therapeutic jurisprudence writing is now in seventeen languages, and some of Wexler's own work has been translated to Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, Urdu, and Slovenian. 

Wexler is a consultant on therapeutic jurisprudence to the National Judicial Institute of Canada and the Judicial Academy of Puerto Rico, and has served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, lecturing on therapeutic jurisprudence in Australia and New Zealand.

Before entering law teaching, Professor Wexler practiced for the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice.

Wexler first explicated the therapeutic jurisprudence perspective in a paper written in 1987. He and Professor Bruce Winick of the University of Miami worked together to further develop the area, which is now of interest to practitioners and academics of many disciplines and nations. For more on therapeutic jurisprudence, see the website of the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence, at www.intltj.com. For a biographical essay on Wexler and his work, see Constance Backhouse, An Introduction to David Wexler, the Person Behind Therapeutic Jurisprudence, at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2747488.

Wexler was presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who in 2020. 

SSRN Published Papers

Representative Publications

• Rehabilitating Lawyers:  Principles of Therapeutic Jurisprudence for Criminal Law Practice (2008).
• Judging in a Therapeutic Key:  Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Courts (2003) (co-editor, with Bruce J. Winick).
• Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence:  Law as a Helping Profession (2000) (co-editor, with Dennis P. Stolle & Bruce J. Winick).
• Law in a Therapeutic Key:  Developments in Therapeutic Jurisprudence (1996) (co-editor, with Bruce J. Winick).
• Complete List of Publications

Education

Work Experience

Public & Institutional Service

Awards