Jimmy Gurulé, an internationally known expert in the field of complex criminal litigation, joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 1989 and in 1996 became a full professor. He served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 1998-1999. He earned his B.A. from the University of Utah in 1974, and his J.D. from the University of Utah College of Law in 1980. A member of the Utah Bar since 1980, Professor Gurulé has worked in a variety of high-profile public law enforcement positions including as a trial attorney with the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (1980-1982), deputy county attorney in the Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office (1983-1985), assistant U.S. attorney and deputy chief of the Major Narcotics Section of the Los Angeles branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and as Assistant Attorney General with the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs in Washington, D.C. (1990-92). Among his many successes in prosecuting complex criminal cases around the country, he engineered the conviction of those responsible for torturing and brutally murdering a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in Mexico.
Professor Gurulé concentrates his teaching and scholarship in the areas of criminal law, teaching courses in complex criminal litigation, criminal law, criminal and scientific evidence, and international criminal law. Most recently, with S. Guerra, he published the definitive treatise on The Law of Asset Forfeiture, and with R.J. Goodwin, the casebook on Criminal and Scientific Evidence: Cases, Materials and Problems and the related teacher’s manual. He frequently participates in conferences and on committees designed to study the problem of organized crime and, most recently, has traveled extensively throughout eastern Europe discussing the problems of organized crime in the former Soviet Socialist Republics. He is a member of the advisory board of the National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition (since 1990) and a member of the LEXIS-NEXIS Advisory Board for Criminal Justice Publications (since 1998).

He has received many honors for his work including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s highest award, the Administrator’s Award. The U.S. attorney general honored him in 1991 with the prestigious Edmund J. Randolph Award, and again in 1992, with the Award for Excellence in Management.

Professor Gurulé is a prominent member of the Hispanic legal community, having been honored in 1997 as one of 12 Hispanics nationwide named "Pillars of a Just Society," a program that recognizes professors, attorneys and judges who have served the cause of justice in the Hispanic community. He also serves as faculty advisor to the Hispanic Law Students Association, as a member of the advisory board to the University’s Latino Studies Program (since 1997) and as a member of the editorial advisory board of the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy (since 1996).

He is on a two-year (2001-03) leave-of-absence from NDLS while he serves as under-Secretary for enforcement in the U.S. Treasury Department, where he has oversight responsibilities for the Secret Service, Customs, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.