David Scheffer is an expert in international law. He served on national security committees and as a counsel to Madeleine Albright.Scheffer is a professor of practice in the School of Politics and Global Studies and a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Affairs. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations (Washington office).

Professor Scheffer has worked in an international law firm, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the U.N. Association of the U.S.A., and he has held visiting professorships at several law schools.