The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Law,
#501
Wendy Seltzer
#27302
Overall Influence
Wendy Seltzer is an American attorney and, as of January 2023, a staff member at Tucows where she is the Principal Identity Architect. She is known for her many years of work with the World Wide Web Consortium, where, among many roles, she was the chair of the Improving Web Advertising Business Group.
Go to Profile#502
Thomas Ulen
#17592
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Thomas Shahan Ulen is an American law and economics professor, currently serving as Swanlund Chair Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . Education Tom Ulen studied at Dartmouth College, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in 1968. After serving in the Peace Corps for two years, he returned to school, receiving a postgraduate degree from Oxford University in 1972. In 1979 he obtained a Ph.D from Stanford University.
Go to Profile#503
Rikki Klieman
#21561
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Rikki Klieman is an American criminal defense lawyer and television personality. A native of Chicago, she is a legal analyst for CBS News, having previously worked in criminal defense in Boston and taught at Columbia Law School. Additionally, she is an author, actress, and is married to William Bratton, former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department and former Police Commissioner of the New York Police Department.
Go to Profile#504
Richard Painter
#9532
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Richard William Painter is an American lawyer, professor, and political candidate. From 2005 to 2007 Painter was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota, and since 2016 has served as vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington , a government watchdog group.
Go to Profile#505
Małgorzata Manowska
#44181
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Małgorzata Manowska is a Polish academician and jurist who serves as the First President of the Supreme Court and as the Chief Justice of the State Tribunal. She is a past Dean of the National College of the Judiciary and a former Deputy Minister of Justice.
Go to Profile#506
Stephen Wizner
#29558
Overall Influence
Stephen Wizner is the William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He also has a Special Appointment as the Sackler Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University. Teaching Wizner teaches several clinical courses, including Advanced Advocacy for Children and Youth, Advanced Immigration Legal Services, and the Community Lawyering Clinic.
Go to Profile#507
Erhard Blankenburg
#21666
Overall Influence
1938 - 2018 (80 years)
Erhard Blankenburg was a German sociologist, specializing in the sociology of law. Education and career Blankenburg studied philosophy, sociology and German literature at the University of Freiburg and the Free University Berlin. He received an MA from the University of Oregon and a PhD from the University of Basel . After working as an assistant to the sociologist Heinrich Popitz at the University of Freiburg , he received there his habilitation . From 1975 to 1980, Blankenburg worked at the renowned Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin. In 1980 he became professor of sociology of law at the Free...
Go to Profile#508
William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.
#13388
Overall Influence
1920 - 2017 (97 years)
William Thaddeus Coleman Jr. was an American attorney and judge. Coleman was the fourth United States Secretary of Transportation, from March 7, 1975, to January 20, 1977, and the second African American to serve in the United States Cabinet. As an attorney, Coleman played a major role in significant civil rights cases. At the time of his death, Coleman was the oldest living former Cabinet member.
Go to Profile#509
Thomas H. Jackson
#20140
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Thomas H. Jackson is an American legal scholar who was the ninth president of the University of Rochester, preceded by Dennis O'Brien. Jackson held the position of president from 1994 until he formally stepped down on June 30, 2005, and was succeeded by Joel Seligman. Jackson's tenure was marked by the controversial "Renaissance Plan", which cut undergraduate enrollment while making admission more selective, and cut several graduate programs. He holds the position of Distinguished University Professor and has faculty appointments in the department of political science and in the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester.
Go to Profile#510
Michael Scharf
#25022
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Michael P. Scharf is co-dean, Joseph C. Hostetler – BakerHostetler professor of law, and the director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Scharf is also co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group , a non-governmental organization which provides pro bono legal assistance to developing states and states in transition. Since 1995 PILPG has provided pro bono legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, drafting post-conflict constitutions, and prosecuting war criminals. Since March 2012, S...
Go to Profile#511
Gerald Gordon
#38362
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
Sir Gerald Henry Gordon is a Scottish lawyer who is the editor of Scottish Criminal Case Reports and of Renton and Brown's Criminal Procedure, and author of The Criminal Law of Scotland. Previous appointments Gordon was a Sheriff from 1976 to 1999 and a Temporary Judge at the High Court until June 2004. He was Professor of Scots law at the University of Edinburgh from 1972 to 1976 and Head of Department of Criminal law and Criminology there from 1965 to 1972. He practised as an Advocate from 1953 to 1959 and was Procurator Fiscal Depute from 1960 to 1965.
Go to Profile#512
Jeffrey S. Lehman
#6147
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Jeffrey Sean Lehman is an American scholar, lawyer and academic administrator who is the vice chancellor of New York University Shanghai. Known as an advocate for the role of universities in globalization, he previously served as chancellor and founding dean of the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China, president of Cornell University, dean of the University of Michigan Law School, and chairman of Internet2.
Go to Profile#513
David Flint
#13753
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
David Edward Flint is an Australian legal academic, known for his leadership of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy and for his tenure as head of the Australian Broadcasting Authority. Early life and education David Flint was born in 1938 and grew up in the Sydney suburb of Waverley. His mother was Indonesian. She enjoyed music and dancing, and Flint took her out dancing every week until she died aged 90. That was always disapproved of by his father, a public servant, champion amateur boxer, and member of a puritanical religious organisation.
Go to Profile#514
Mikheil Saakashvili
#6846
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist. He was the third president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the governor of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast. He is the founder and former chairman of the United National Movement party. Saakashvili heads the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council since 7 May 2020. In 2021 he began serving a six-year prison sentence in Georgia on charges of abuse of power and organization of an assault occasioning grievous bodily harm a...
Go to Profile#515
C. Raj Kumar
#20420
Overall Influence
Chockalingam Raj Kumar is an Indian academic administrator currently serving as the Vice-Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University in Sonipat, Haryana, India, and the Dean of the Jindal Global Law School.
Go to Profile#516
Michael Mandel
#25115
Overall Influence
1948 - 2013 (65 years)
Michael Mandel was a Canadian legal academic, specializing in criminal law with a particular interest in criminal sentencing and legal theory. He was the author of the 2005 book How America Gets Away With Murder.
Go to Profile#517
William T. Allen
#30993
Overall Influence
1948 - 2019 (71 years)
William T. Allen was a professor of corporate law at New York University law school, and the Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery from 1985 to 1997. He also worked for the bank and business law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Go to Profile#518
Amintore Fanfani
#10573
Overall Influence
1908 - 1999 (91 years)
Amintore Fanfani was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War and a historical figure of the left-wing faction of Christian Democracy. He is also considered one of the founders of the modern Italian centre-left.
Go to Profile#519
Amy Wax
#14583
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
#520
John Palfrey
#13368
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
John Gorham Palfrey VII is an American educator, scholar, and law professor. He is an authority on the legal aspects of emerging media and an advocate for Internet freedom, including increased online transparency and accountability as well as child safety. In March 2019, he was named the president of the MacArthur Foundation effective September 1, 2019. Palfrey was the 15th Head of School at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts from 2012 to 2019. He has been an important figure at Harvard Law School and served as executive director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society fro...
Go to Profile#521
Klaus Vogel
#33726
Overall Influence
1930 - 2007 (77 years)
Klaus Vogel , born in Hamburg, Germany, was widely recognized as an academic expert on the aspects of international taxation, particularly on tax treaties. He is regarded as having been an authority on the interpretation of double tax treaties.
Go to Profile#522
Michael Lynk
#19423
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Stanley Michael Lynk is a Canadian legal academic. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario. From 2016 to 2022 he was the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967.
Go to Profile#523
Frederick M. Abbott
#31287
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Frederick M. Abbott is an American legal academic who is active in scholarly and public policy discussion involving global intellectual property protections and economic law, especially access to medicine. He holds the Edward Ball Eminent Scholar at Florida State University College of Law. He has written scores of journal articles and his books include The International Intellectual Property System: Commentary and Materials , China in the World Trading System: Defining the Principles of Engagement , Public Policy and Global Technological Integration , and Law and Policy of Regional Integration .
Go to Profile#524
Edith Brown Weiss
#29567
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Edith Brown Weiss is an American lawyer and legal scholar, known for her contributions on International Law; specifically International Environmental Law. From 1994–1996, she served as President of the American Society of International Law. She has worked for many international organizations, including the World Bank, where she was part of the Inspection Panel from 2002–2007, and the United Nations Environment Programmer's International Advisory Council on Environmental Justice. Currently, she is the Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International Law at Georgetown University; she has been a faculty member at Georgetown since 1978.
Go to Profile#525
Bob Berring
#29896
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Robert Charles "Bob" Berring Jr. is a noted figure in law, as a professor, librarian, scholar and researcher. Biography Born in 1949 in Canton, Ohio, Berring received his undergraduate degree from Harvard , his J.D. degree from University of California, Berkeley School of Law , and his library degree from U.C. Berkeley's then-named library school.
Go to Profile#526
David Daube
#15745
Overall Influence
1909 - 1999 (90 years)
David Daube was the twentieth century's preeminent scholar of ancient law. He combined a familiarity with many legal systems, particularly Roman law and biblical law, with an expertise in Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian literature, and used literary, religious, and legal texts to illuminate each other and, among other things, to "transform the position of Roman law" and to launch a "revolution" or "near revolution" in New Testament studies.
Go to Profile#527
Trevor Morrison
#34507
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Trevor W. Morrison is the Eric M. and Laurie B. Roth Professor of Law and dean emeritus at New York University School of Law. He was previously a professor at Columbia Law School and Cornell Law School, and an associate counsel to U.S. President Barack Obama.
Go to Profile#528
G. Robert Blakey
#10360
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (88 years)
George Robert Blakey is an American attorney and law professor. He is best known for his work in connection with drafting the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and for scholarship on that subject.
Go to Profile#529
Goh Yihan
#23699
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (43 years)
Goh Yihan is a Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore. He was previously a Judicial Commissioner, and, before that, the Dean of the Singapore Management University School of Law. Education Goh graduated from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law with a first class honours LLB in 2006 as the valedictorian. He also topped his second-year examinations and was on the NUS Undergraduate Scholarship. At the 2004 B. A. Mallal Moot, he won both the best oralist and best memorial prizes.
Go to Profile#530
Greg Daniels
#2332
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Gregory Martin Daniels is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, adapting The Office for the United States, and co-creating Parks and Recreation and King of the Hill. Daniels attended Harvard University, where he befriended and began collaborating with Conan O'Brien. His first writing credit was for Not Necessarily the News, before he was laid off because of budget cuts.
Go to Profile#531
Frederik Harhoff
#20314
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Frederik Harhoff is a Danish jurist. He was a member of the faculty of the University of Copenhagen and served as an ad litem judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia from 9 January 2007 to 28 August 2013. After acquittals of mid-level Serbian suspects in war crimes trials, Harhoff circulated a letter to colleagues stating that the higher bar for convictions in this case was established by ICTY Chief Justice Theodor Meron, and strongly hinted that Meron was acting on behalf of the U.S. and Israel in enacting the policy . The Harhoff letter was highly controversi...
Go to Profile#532
David Stras
#29792
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (50 years)
David Ryan Stras is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He is a former Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Early life and education Stras was born in 1974 in Wichita, Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts with highest honors. He then jointly attended the University of Kansas's School of Law and School of Business, receiving a JD–MBA in 1999. As a law student, Stras was editor-in-chief of the Criminal Procedure Edition of the Kansas Law Review, and he received his law degree with ...
Go to Profile#533
Ronaldo Lemos
#16194
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (48 years)
Ronaldo Lemos is a Brazilian academic, lawyer and commentator on intellectual property, technology, and culture. Lemos is the director of the Institute for Technology & Society of Rio de Janeiro , and professor at the Rio de Janeiro State University's Law School. He is also a partner with the law firm Rennó Penteado Advogados and a board member of various organizations, including the Mozilla Foundation, Accessnow.org, and Stellar. He was nominated a visiting professor of law, Technology and Policy at Columbia University's School of International Public Affairs in 2017 and 2018. He was appointed as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2015.
Go to Profile#534
Vikram Amar
#23570
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Vikram David Amar is an American legal scholar focusing on constitutional law, federal courts, and civil and criminal procedure. In August 2015, he became dean of the University of Illinois College of Law and the Iwan Foundation Professor of Law.
Go to Profile#535
Eric Holder
#9268
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Eric Himpton Holder Jr. is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd United States attorney general from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Holder was the first African American to hold the position.
Go to Profile#536
Klaus Staeck
#16132
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Klaus Staeck is a German lawyer and publisher who is best known in Germany for his political graphic design work. From 2006 to 2015 he was president of the Akademie der Künste at Berlin. Early life and education Klaus Staeck grew up in the East German city of Bitterfeld. After passing the Abitur in 1956 he moved to the West German city of Heidelberg where he lives down to the present day.
Go to Profile#537
Richard H. Weisberg
#26952
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Richard H. Weisberg is a professor of constitutional law at the Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York City, and a leading scholar on law and literature. Biography Weisberg received his B.A. degree from Brandeis University in 1965, Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 1970, and J.D. degree from Columbia University in 1974.
Go to Profile#538
Jane C. Ginsburg
#29386
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Jane Carol Ginsburg is an American attorney. She is the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at the Columbia Law School. She also directs the law school's Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts. In 2011, Ginsburg was elected to the British Academy.
Go to Profile#539
Michael Geist
#11220
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Michael Allen Geist is a Canadian academic, and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He is the editor of four books on copyright law and privacy law, and he edits two newsletters on Canadian information technology and privacy law.
Go to Profile#540
Georges Abi-Saab
#20994
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Georges Michel Abi-Saab is an Egyptian lawyer, professor of international law, and an international judge. He is well known for his defense of the interests of Third World countries in and within international law.
Go to Profile#541
Joseph Sax
#34570
Overall Influence
1936 - 2014 (78 years)
Joseph Lawrence Sax was an environmental law professor, known for developing the public trust doctrine. Born and raised in Chicago, Sax graduated from Harvard University in 1957 and then earned a J.D. degree in 1959 from the University of Chicago Law School. After a few years in private practice and at the Department of Justice he began teaching, first with the University of Colorado in 1962 and then at the University of Michigan in 1965. He joined the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1986.
Go to Profile#542
Sujit Choudhry
#21490
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Sujit Choudhry is a lawyer, legal scholar, and expert in comparative constitutional law. Choudhry was on the faculty at the University of Toronto and New York University School of Law before being named dean University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He stepped down from his position as dean in 2016 after being accused of sexually harassing an executive assistant, which he denied, paying a $100,000 settlement but retaining his position on the faculty.
Go to Profile#543
Nathaniel Persily
#33256
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Nathaniel Persily is the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, where he has taught since 2013. He is a scholar of constitutional law, election law, and the democratic process. Education and early career Persily received his B.A./M.A. in political science from Yale University in 1992; his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1998, where he served as president of the Stanford Law Review; and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002. Following law school, Persily clerked for the Honorable David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for ...
Go to Profile#544
David Kennedy
#24720
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
David W. Kennedy is an American academic and legal scholar known for his work on, and criticism of, international law. he is the Manley Hudson Professor of Law and the Director of the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School, where he teaches the courses "Global Law and Governance", "Law and Economic Development" and "Expertise and Rulership in Law and Science". He has been a professor at Harvard Law School since 1981, although for a few years he held an appointment at Brown University, as Vice President International Affairs and the David and Marianna Fisher University Pro...
Go to Profile#545
John C. Coffee
#16596
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
John C. Coffee Jr. is the Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law and director of the Center on Corporate Governance at Columbia Law School. Education Coffee grew up in Manhasset, New York. He is of Irish descent. He attended Manhasset High School where he was in the National Honor Society. After graduation, he attended Amherst College with his high school friend and classmate, actor Ken Howard. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1966, his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1969 and later an LL.M. from New York University School of Law.
Go to Profile#546
James L. Ryan
#32183
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
James Leo Ryan is an inactive senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Education and career Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ryan graduated from Detroit Catholic Central High School. He received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Detroit School of Law in 1956. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Detroit in 1992. Ryan served as a law specialist in the United States Navy and was assigned to the Judge Advocate General and duty with the United States Marine Corps. Upon his release from active duty in 1960, he continued to ...
Go to Profile#547
Robert Reed, Baron Reed of Allermuir
#14052
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Robert John Reed, Baron Reed of Allermuir, is a British judge who has been President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom since January 2020. He was the principal judge in the Commercial Court in Scotland before being promoted to the Inner House of the Court of Session in 2008. He is an authority on human rights law in Scotland and elsewhere; he served as one of the UK's ad hoc judges at the European Court of Human Rights. He was also a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.
Go to Profile#548
John Honnold
#16728
Overall Influence
John Otis Honnold Jr. was the William A. Schnader Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Biography Honnold was born in Kansas, Illinois, to John Otis and Louretta Honnold, and lived in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#549
Wolfgang Ernst
#30472
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Wolfgang Hermann Wernher Ernst is a German lawyer and Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford. Life Ernst studied from 1976 to 1980 at the University of Bonn and the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. He took his comprehensive examination in 1981 in Bonn and continued his studies 1981–82 at Yale University to achieve a Master of Laws . In 1982 he continued his studies in Germany and was admitted to the bar in 1985. From 1986 to 1990 he was a lecturer at the Institute of Roman Law at the University of Bonn and attained his Habilitation in 1989.
Go to Profile#550
Donald C. Clarke
#31627
Overall Influence
Donald C. Clarke is a law professor specializing in Chinese law at The George Washington University Law School. His interests range from Chinese criminal law and procedure to corporate governance. His Chinese name is Guo Danqing .
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