Allison Orr Larsen of William & Mary Law School Elected to the American Law Institute

On December 23, the American Law Institute (ALI) announced its newly elected members, including Allison Orr Larsen, the Taylor Reveley Research Professor and Alfred Wilson & Mary I.W. Lee Professor of Law, and Director of the Institute for the Bill of Rights Law at William & Mary.

Professor Larsen is a leading scholar of constitutional law and legal institutions, with a particular focus on how information dynamics shape both. Her groundbreaking research on Supreme Court fact-finding has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and was the subject of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2021.

Her scholarship has appeared in the nation’s top law reviews and has been cited by eight U.S. Courts of Appeals. Larsen’s expertise on Supreme Court amicus briefs even brought her to The Colbert Report (Comedy Central) and before the Presidential Commission on Supreme Court Reform.

Since joining the William & Mary faculty in 2010, Larsen has taught constitutional law, administrative law, and statutory interpretation, earning numerous honors for her teaching and scholarship. These include the university’s Alumni Fellowship Award, the 1L Professor of the Year award, two Plumeri Awards, the inaugural McGlothlin Teaching Award, and Virginia’s statewide Outstanding Faculty Award in the “Rising Star” category. She has received two Walter L. Williams, Jr. Memorial Teaching Awards.

A Charlottesville, Va., native, Larsen graduated magna cum laude from William & Mary and first in her class at the University of Virginia School of Law. She clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court before practicing appellate litigation at O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. She began her academic career as a Scholar-in-Residence at Catholic University School of Law.

In recent years, Larsen has served as the Daniel P.S. Paul Visiting Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School and as a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University.

ALI members contribute their expertise to the Institute’s mission of clarifying and improving the law through Restatements, Principles, and Model Codes.

“The election of new members is among the most important responsibilities of the Institute,” said ALI President David F. Levi. “This distinguished group once again brings the reach and experience needed to help the ALI address emerging legal challenges while continuing to pursue its mission of clarifying, simplifying, and reforming the law. As I welcome these new members, I do so with great confidence in the Institute’s future.”

Larsen joins a number of full-time William & Mary faculty who serve as members of ALI. They include Jonathan Adler, Kami Chavis, Aaron-Andrew Bruhl, Rebecca Green, Vivian Hamilton, Thomas McSweeney, Nathan Oman, James Y. Stern, and Dean A. Benjamin Spencer.

Visit the Newly Elected Members Page to view the full list of new members.