David B. Kopel is Research Director of the Independence Institute, a public policy research organization in Denver, Colorado, and is an Associate Policy Analyst with the Cato Institute, in Washington. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law at Denver University, Sturm College of Law. 

Kopel is one of several contributors to The Volokh Conspiracy, a group weblog of several legal academics, hosted by the Washington Post. From time to time he writes for the Wall Street Journal and other periodicals. He is the author of 17 books, and over 97 scholarly articles published in journals such as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, and Johns Hopkins SAIS Review. His topics include constitutional law, international law, criminal justice, technology, antitrust, media issues, and environmental policy. He has contributed entries to nine academic encyclopedias, and served on the Board of Editors for one. 

His research has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, many lower federal courts, and state supreme courts.

On March 18, 2008, he appeared before the United States Supreme Court as part of the team presenting the oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court's first major case on the Second Amendment since 1939. 

Before joining the Independence Institute, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Colorado, dealing with enforcement of hazardous waste, Superfund, and other environmental laws. In 1998-99, he served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan Law School, and earned a B.A. in History with Highest Honors from Brown University, where his thesis on Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., was awarded the National Geographic Society Prize.