A former deputy solicitor general at the U.S. Department of Justice, Thomas Merrill is a leading scholar of property and administrative law. He is currently writing a book on the legal history of natural resource conflicts involving the Chicago lakefront, from 1850 to the present. He also has written a number of pieces about the history of administrative law and judicial review of agency interpretations of law.

In addition, Merrill has analyzed energy policy. Along with Professor and Dean Emeritus David M. Schizer, he advocated a novel approach to taxing gasoline and examined potential regulatory regimes for fracking.

Merrill is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been honored for his work by the American Bar Association Section on Administrative Law and with the Brigham-Kanner Prize for Property Scholarship.