Daniel S. McConkie, Jr.

Office: Swen Parson 194B

Phone: 815-753-1560

Email: mcconkie@niu.edu

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About

Daniel McConkie joined the NIU Law faculty in 2015. He teaches courses in criminal law and criminal procedure, as well as the First Amendment.

Professor McConkie was a prosecutor in California for eight years, first for the state and then for the federal government. As a federal prosecutor, he specialized in taking down large drug trafficking organizations and served as his office's ethics advisor. His research interests in criminal law and procedure include plea bargaining, criminal discovery, mass incarceration, the participation of ordinary citizens in criminal justice processes, and restorative justice. He also writes about Kenya's approach to criminal justice and what the United States might learn from that.

Professor McConkie holds an Honors BA degree in history from the University of Utah (2001), where he graduated cum laude, and a JD degree from Stanford Law School (2004), where he was a Public Interest Fellow. From 2013 to 2015, Professor McConkie was a visiting professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.

Education

• J.D., Stanford Law School
• B.A., University of Utah

Areas of Expertise

• Criminal law
• Criminal procedure
• Plea bargaining
• Citizen participation in criminal justice
• Professional responsibility
• First Amendment
• Kenyan and African law

Articles

• Harambee: Lessons from Kenya About Restorative Justice, 55 Cal. Western Int'l L. J. 297 (2025).
• Promoting and Reforming Kenya’s Customary Justice Systems in Criminal Cases, 38 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 343 (2024)
• Restorative Justice as a Democratic Practice, 55 Loyola L. J. 667 (2024)
• Criminal Justice Citizenship, 72 Fla. L. Rev. 1023 (2021).
• Plea Bargaining for the People, 104 Marq. L. Rev. 1031 (2020).
• The Local Rules Revolution in Criminal Discovery, 39 Cardozo L. Rev. 102 (2017). (Also available in SSRN)
• Structuring Pre-Plea Criminal Discovery, 107 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 1 (2017). (Also available in SSRN)
• Judges as Framers of Plea Bargaining, 26 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 61 (2015). (Also available in SSRN)

Courses

• Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure: Investigation
• Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
• Mass Incarceration Seminar
• Criminal Justice Citizenship Seminar
• Advanced Criminal Law Seminar
• Professional Responsibility
• Race and the Law
• First Amendment