Professor Farber graduated the University of Illinois, earning his B.A., M.A., and J.D. degrees. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Law where he was class valedictorian.
He has contributed to the history of law, and constitutional and environmental law in the United States. He has written and lectured in the areas of law, legislation, and jurisprudence. Farber is the first Henry J. Fletcher Professor of Law, and holds an appointment as Sho Sato Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, in addition to an appointment to the McKnight Presidential Chair of Public Law in 2000. Farber has been the Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at the University of Michigan since 1992.