Background

Duncan Alford joined the faculty in April 2007 as Associate Dean and Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law. Professor Alford received his J.D. with Honors from the School of Law of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he served on the North Carolina Law Review. He received his B.A. with High Distinction in Economics and French from the University of Virginia. Professor Alford also attended the University of South Carolina College of Library and Information Science graduating with a M.L.I.S. in 2001. Professor Alford was promoted to full professor in August 2012.

Prior to attending law school, Professor Alford was a Business Analyst with McKinsey & Company, Inc., in Atlanta where he served clients in the telecommunications and banking industries. After graduation from law school, Professor Alford clerked for Justice Burley Mitchell of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He then practiced corporate and banking law with Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta. He later joined Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A., practicing corporate and commercial real estate law in Charlotte, NC and Rock Hill, SC and was elected a partner there in 2000.

Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Professor Alford served as the Associate Dean for Library and Information Services and Associate Professor of Law on the inaugural faculty of the Charlotte School of Law, in Charlotte, NC. Previously, Professor Alford was the Head of Reference and Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Library, Washington, D.C. He also served as the Law Librarian at Princeton University, and a Reference Librarian at the Columbia University Law Library in New York City.

Professor Alford taught first year legal research and began the law school’s first International and Foreign Legal Research course in 2009, adding to the law school’s offerings in international and foreign law. He published numerous articles on legal research and banking law. His research interests included international banking law and international and comparative law generally. He held research fellowships at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the American Academy in Rome, the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and was a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Mkar, Benue State, Nigeria. He was admitted to practice law in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. Professor Alford was born and raised in Spartanburg, SC, where he attended high school.

Teaching

• Legal Research, Analysis & Writing I (LAWS 533)
• Legal Research, Analysis & Writing II (LAWS 534)
• International and Foreign Legal Research (LAWS 563)