Learn more about the Barnard community’s thoughts on her election.
President Laura Rosenbury
Higher education is where I learned to see and understand the world in a new way and was given the space to identify where my passions lie. It’s incredibly special to be joining a community devoted specifically to helping the next generation of women do the same.
President Laura Rosenbury
President Laura Rosenbury talks about the importance both of empowering young women and the liberal arts at Barnard.
Rosenbury is a legal theorist who conducts research on women and gender.
Biography
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A leading feminist legal theorist, Laura Rosenbury is Barnard College’s ninth president. She began her tenure on June 12, 2023.
Previously, she served for eight years as the Dean and Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law at University of Florida Levin College of Law. She was the first woman in that role.
One of her goals was to raise the national and international profile of Florida’s flagship law school. Under her leadership, UF Law extended its reach around the globe, increased incoming applications by 200%, enrolled seven of the most accomplished and diverse classes in UF Law’s 113-year history, and hired 39 new faculty members. Since 2016, UF Law has jumped 27 spots in the U.S. News rankings and ranks among the top 25 law schools in the nation.
Before joining the UF Law community, Rosenbury was a professor of law and vice dean at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. She also has served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School and University of Chicago Law School.
Rosenbury’s research and teaching focus on the law of private relationships, exploring how law and social norms interact in family law, employment discrimination law, and property law. Her work has been published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and in many other journals and books.
Rosenbury was elected to the American Law Institute in 2010 and was named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2014. In addition, she has taught courses on negotiation, nonadversarial communication, team building, and leadership for practicing lawyers and other executives.
Prior to entering academia, Rosenbury was a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City and clerked for Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Rosenbury received her A.B. summa cum laude in women’s studies from Harvard-Radcliffe College and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she served as a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Outside of work, she enjoys gardening and traveling. If at all possible, she also completes the New York Times crossword puzzle and spelling bee every day.