Professor Allison Orr Larsen Receives Tenure
Accolades In 2014, Professor Larsen received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty. She also has been recognized with the Alumni Fellowship Award (2012), the Walter L. Williams, Jr., Memorial Teaching Award (2013) and the Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence (2015).
William & Mary announced that its Board of Visitors has conferred tenure on Professor Allison Orr Larsen and promoted her from associate professor of law to professor of law.
“Professor Larsen has developed in short order into a marvelous teacher and scholar,” said Law School Dean Davison M. Douglas. “Our students flock to her courses, and her research is widely read. I am delighted that she has received tenure.”
Larsen's scholarship has appeared in top law reviews and her research includes constitutional law and the institutional and informational dynamics of legal decision-making. The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal have favorably highlighted her research on factfinding at the Supreme Court, and she appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to discuss her study of Supreme Court amicus briefs with host Stephen Colbert. Watch the video. She will conduct comparative research on factfinding as a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford in the fall.
The State Council for Higher Education selected Larsen for an Outstanding Faculty Award in 2014, an honor that recognizes excellence in teaching, research, and service. She was one of two recipients designated as a “Rising Star,” an accolade given to those who show extraordinary promise early in their careers. She also has been recognized with the Alumni Fellowship Award (2012), the Walter L. Williams, Jr., Memorial Teaching Award (2013) and the Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence (2015).
Larsen received her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the College of William & Mary and then attended the University of Virginia School of Law where she graduated first in her class and served on the managing board of the Virginia Law Review. She clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. Before beginning her academic career, she practiced for several years in the appellate litigation division of O'Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C.
Larsen's scholarly publications include:
- Co-author, The Amicus Machine, 102 Va. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2016) (with Neal E. Devins). SSRN.
- Do Laws Have a Constitutional Shelf Life?, 94 Tex. L. Rev. 59 (2015). SSRN.
- The Trouble with Amicus Facts, 100 Va. L. Rev. 1757 (2014). SSRN.
- Factual Precedents, 162 U. Pa. L. Rev. 59 (2013). SSRN.
- Confronting Supreme Court Fact Finding, 98 Va. L. Rev. 1255 (2012). SSRN.
- Bargaining Inside the Black Box, 99 Geo. L.J. 1567 (2011). SSRN.
- Perpetual Dissents, 15 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 447 (2008). SSRN.
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Thomas Jefferson founded William & Mary Law School in 1779 to train leaders for the new nation. Now in its third century, America's oldest law school continues its historic mission of educating citizen lawyers who are prepared both to lead and to serve.