Vanderbilt Law School

Thirteen outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2024 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise.    Read More

There is a burgeoning consensus among climate-minded policymakers and scholars that loosening zoning regulations to promote greater density while simultaneously tightening building efficiency standards can reduce emissions and address housing shortages that affect communities across the U.S. In a new paper, Christopher Serkin, Elisabeth H. & Granville S. Ridley Jr. Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School, argues that fewer restrictions may promote development activity, but there is no guarantee that it will result in greater density. Read More

Sean Seymore, Centennial Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, argues that federal courts have “abandoned their gatekeeping function” for protecting public health in patent cases. Read More

A paper co-authored by Brian Broughman, professor of law, proposes a new model for analyzing venture capitalist behavior. Read More

Four Vanderbilt Law Students, under the guidance of Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation director Ganesh Sitaraman, authored a paper that sheds light on the benefits and drawbacks of public grocery store models, offering guidance and a model bill for policymakers and leaders considering their use in urban or rural communities. Read More

The award, funded by the Enhanced Funding and Support Model for Doctoral Education, recognizes doctoral students who exhibit exceptional academic excellence in areas such as publications, awards, patents and other forms of national/international distinction. Read More

This collaboration highlights an important facet of the academic librarian’s role: leveraging research expertise to find and organize information and evaluate its quality, accuracy and validity to bolster faculty scholarship. In essence, librarians are information specialists who help to translate research into knowledge that has practical and far-reaching applications. Read More

On May 3 and 4, the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation and the Vanderbilt University Department of History hosted “How the New Deal Was Run,” a conference about the implementation of the New Deal programs that transformed American life in the 1930s and beyond.  Read More

In his review article, drug law expert Robert Mikos, LaRoche Family Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School, draws lessons from the marijuana reform movement that proponents of psychedelic legalization should heed in their efforts to win public support. Read More

Meet members of the Class of 2024 with a unique passion and perspective on how to live out the Dare to Grow motto. Read More

The distinguished faculty members and deans representing eight colleges and schools were presented with medallions that symbolize the attainment of their positions and will become part of their official academic regalia. Chair holders contribute their expertise to real-world challenges, including climate change, political inequality and access to justice, artificial intelligence and ICU trauma.   Read More

A new paper by Farhang Heydari chronicles what started as an attempt to promote traffic safety that evolved quickly into a tactic to ferret out drug traffickers, criminals, and even terrorists, straying far from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's mission to “save lives, prevent injuries and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes.” Read More

Led by inaugural director of undergraduate studies and Centennial Professor of Law Sean B. Seymore, the Undergraduate Minor in Legal Studies is designed to help students make an informed judgment about whether to pursue law school and/or a legal career, provide substantive legal knowledge and critical thinking skills, and allow them to become better-informed citizens. Read More

The Invention Myth, by Sean B. Seymore, Centennial Professor of Law and Professor of Chemistry at Vanderbilt University, offers a new approach to inventorship, one that more accurately reflects the way many significant things are created. Read More

Working across multiple disciplines, Vanderbilt researchers found that a relatively small proportion of funds from two recent significant pieces of environmental law – the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021 and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 – could lead to an outsized reduction in emissions. Read More

Chris Guthrie has been reappointed dean of the Vanderbilt Law School by Provost C. Cybele Raver. The reappointment is for a five-year term starting July 1, at which point Guthrie will have completed 15 years in the role.   Read More

WATCH: Learn about the mentor who most inspired Trey Ferguson to use his J.D./MBA degrees to help future graduate students. Read More

A new program launching at the Alyne Queener Massey Law Library in January will enable Vanderbilt Law School students to borrow essential textbooks for the full length of a semester and help alleviate some of the costs associated with attending law school. The initiative, which uses donated textbooks, is a collaboration between the law library and the Vanderbilt Bar Association, the official student government organization of the Law School. Read More

Housed within the Law School’s Program on Law and Innovation, the AI Legal Lab’s mission is to harness AI to expand access to legal services and knowledge and to improve their delivery. Read More

Although applications for the program are reviewed on a rolling basis; applicants are encouraged to submit their application as soon as possible. Read More