Gary S. Lawson Joins Florida Law
The University of Florida Levin College of Law is pleased to announce that Professor Gary S. Lawson, currently the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University School of Law, will join the Florida Law faculty during the summer of 2024.
Professor Lawson is one of the most highly cited and influential constitutional and administrative law scholars in the country. He has authored or co-authored nine editions of a textbook on administrative law, a textbook on constitutional law, five university press books, and more than 100 scholarly articles on topics ranging from constitutional theory to the proof of legal propositions. With more than 1,200 citations in the last five years, and more than 3,400 lifetime citations according to Westlaw, Professor Lawson is one of the most highly cited legal scholars in any field. According to a 2021 survey, Professor Lawson is the second-most highly cited administrative law scholar in the country. His works have been cited in twenty-one opinions of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Lawson twice clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, first at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and then at the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a founding member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution. Professor Lawson is a graduate of Yale Law School, and he received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Claremont Men’s College.
Professor Lawson began his career at Northwestern University School of Law, where he earned tenure in 1994 before moving to Boston University in 2000. Professor Lawson has been recognized with numerous awards during his academic career, including most notably the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is designated as Boston University’s highest honor for teaching. He has also served two terms as BU Law’s Associate Dean for Intellectual Life.
“Professor Lawson is a transformational hire for Florida Law,” said Merritt McAlister, Interim Dean and Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law at Florida Law. “He embodies the best of what we aspire to as legal academics. Professor Lawson is an intellectual leader whose work has shaped the development of law. He is a dedicated and talented teacher, and he’s committed to the intellectual life of the law school community. We can’t wait for him to join us.”
Professor Lawson’s arrival in 2024 will follow a remarkably productive three-year span of lateral hiring at the Levin College of Law. In the last two years, Florida Law has added eight tenured faculty members: Derek Bambauer, Jane Bambauer, Julian Cook, Elizabeth Katz, Zachary Kaufman, Lyrissa Lidsky, Lynn LoPucki, and Tracey Maclin. Three of those lateral moves received national attention, with recognition as “take notice” lateral moves. These new professors join more than 20 other faculty new to Florida Law since 2022.