Northwestern Pritzker Law Dean Hari Osofsky Elected to the American Law Institute

Dean Hari Osofsky, Myra and James Bradwell Professor of Law and Professor of Environmental Policy and Culture (courtesy), has been elected as a new member of the American Law Institute (ALI), the leading independent U.S. organization producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law. The newly elected membership of ALI consists of 61 highly respected law professionals, including distinguished judges, lawyers and law professors from around the globe.

“We have had many reasons to celebrate in 2023, and I am happy that this new member class gives us yet another one,” said ALI President David F. Levi in a statement. “Reaching our centennial was no small task. An organization can only last as long as ALI has and can only produce work as influential as our projects through the hard work and dedication of members like ours. I am pleased to announce this new class of members and look forward to working with them on our work as we begin our second century.”

Dean Osofsky joined Northwestern Pritzker Law in 2021. Her over 50 publications focus on improving governance and addressing injustice in energy and climate change regulation. Her scholarship includes books with Cambridge University Press on climate change litigation, textbooks on both energy and climate change law, and articles in leading law and geography journals. She has collaborated extensively with business, government, and nonprofit leaders to make bipartisan progress on these issues through her leadership roles and teaching. Her Emory Law Journal article, “Energy Partisanship,” was awarded the 2018 Morrison Prize, which recognizes the most impactful sustainability-related legal academic article published in North America during the previous year. The American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center recognized her as one of the 2019 Women of Legal-Tech.

As dean, her leadership has focused on advancing innovation at a time of change in the profession and society. This has included faculty hiring, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and teaching initiatives, and concrete action to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion and social and racial justice.  

Prior to joining Northwestern Pritzker Law, Dean Osofsky served as dean of Penn State Law and the Penn State School of International Affairs. She also served on the faculties of University of Minnesota Law School, Washington and Lee University School of Law, the University of Oregon School of Law, and Whittier Law School. She clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She received a PhD in geography from the University of Oregon and a JD from Yale Law School.

“I am deeply honored to have been elected a member of the American Law Institute,” said Dean Osofsky. “ALI and its members make tremendous contributions to the profession and society, and I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with them to make a difference on important legal issues.”

Dean Osofsky joins a long list of current Northwestern Pritzker Law faculty who are a part of the American Law Institute. Other members include: Ronald J. Allen, Zachary Clopton, Paul Gowder, Emily Kadens, Bruce A. Markell, Ajay K. Mehrotra, Jide Nzelibe, James E. Pfander, Martin H. Redish, Daniel B. Rodriguez, Deborah Tuerkheimer, and Robin Walker Sterling.