Allison Orr Larsen

Allison Orr Larsen is the Alfred Wilson & Mary I. W. Lee Professor of Law at William & Mary and director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law. Larsen received her BA from William & Mary and her JD from the University of Virginia, where she graduated first in her law school class. Larsen clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. Since joining the William & Mary faculty in 2010, Larsen has received many awards honoring her teaching and scholarship, including the statewide Outstanding Faculty Award in the “Rising Star” category, issued by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. In 2025, she was elected to the American Law Institute.

Larsen is a scholar of constitutional law and legal institutions, with a focus on how information dynamics affect both. She has published in numerous law reviews, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and been cited by the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Larsen’s work on judicial fact-finding is regularly featured in the national press, and she appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert to discuss her scholarship on Supreme Court amicus briefs. 

Larsen’s project, “How the Courts Can Save Themselves,” seeks to decrease partisan behavior on the lower courts by leveraging a preexisting judicial commitment to rule of law norms. Based on judicial interviews and empirical measures, the book, coauthored with Neal Devins, will argue that court reform must be judge-led and aim to bolster internal court cohesion while foregoing external celebrity.

May 2026