Search People Result | Academic Influence

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).

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School

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Ranking

List of the most influential people in Law,

#2051

Mark Lloyd

#31318

Overall Influence

1901 - Present (123 years)

Mark Lloyd is a former associate general counsel and Chief Diversity Officer at the Federal Communications Commission of the United States from 2009-2012. He was previously the vice president for strategic initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Lloyd was also an affiliate professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, and in the years from 2002-2004 Lloyd was a visiting lecturer at MIT where he conducted research and taught about communications policy.

#2052

Guðmundur Eiríksson

#66214

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Guðmundur Eiríksson is an Icelandic Judge and Law Professor. He is currently serving as a Judge on the Arbitral Tribunal in the Dispute concerning the Detention of Ukrainian Naval Vessels and Servicemen which is being conducted under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He has served as an Ambassador of Iceland, a member of the United Nations International Law Commission and as a Judge and Judge ad hoc at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

#2053

Robert F. Turner

Robert F. Turner

#67944

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Robert F. Turner was a professor of international law and national security law at the University of Virginia and the co-founder of its Center for National Security Law. Education Turner earned his BA in Government with honors from Indiana University in 1968. While attending the university, he became chairman of the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists Conservative League. Later, he became the National Research Director for Student Committee for Victory in Vietnam. He undertook graduate work in history and political science at Stanford University in 1972 and 1973 while employed by the Hoover Institution.

#2054

George P. Smith II

#67783

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

George Patrick Smith II is an American academic. Until 2016 he was a professor of law at the Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America, of which he is now an emeritus professor. Education and career Smith was born on September 1, 1939, in Wabash, Indiana, where his father and uncle were both attorneys.

#2055

Linda McClain

#62227

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Linda McClain is the Robert B. Kent Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, and was previously the Rivkin Radler Distinguished Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School. McClain's work focuses on family law, sex equality, and feminist legal theory.McClain has written extensively on topics related to family, gender, and constitutional issues.

#2056

Samuel Thurman

#92050

Overall Influence

1913 - 1995 (82 years)

Samuel D. Thurman was an American lawyer, having been Distinguished Professor at S. J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of Utah in 1988.

#2057

Walter Kamba

#28338

Overall Influence

1931 - 2007 (76 years)

Walter Kamba was a Zimbabwean lawyer and academic, one of the few black lawyers practicing in the then British colony of Rhodesia. He fled following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Prime Minister Ian Smith. He joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Dundee, Scotland in 1969, where he taught Jurisprudence and Comparative Law. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer and in 1977 became Dean of the Faculty. He was awarded an honorary degree by the University in 1982 as part of its centenary celebrations.

#2058

Lujo Margetić

#80725

Overall Influence

1920 - 2010 (90 years)

Lujo Margetić was a Croatian legal historian, member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a professor emeritus of the University of Rijeka. Life and education Margetić was born in 1920 in Donja Stubica. He finished the Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb and 1943 joined the Croatian Partisans where as a soldier participate in liberation of Primorje and Kvarner. After end of the war he graduated on the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb in 1945, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1946. In 1948 Margetić moved to Rijeka, where he spent 20 years - 1956 to 1976 - working for Energoprojekt, a local company.

#2059

Elizabeth Borgwardt

#87549

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Elizabeth Kopelman Borgwardt is an American historian, and lawyer. Life She graduated from Cambridge University with a BA and M.Phil., from Harvard Law School, with a J.D., and from Stanford University with a Ph.D. She worked as a mediator and arbitrator, and was a senior fellow at the Center for Conflict and Negotiation at Stanford University. She also worked on the Michael Dukakis 1988 presidential campaign. On June 26, 1993, she married Kurt Borgwardt. She teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

#2060

María Elósegui

#52283

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

María Elósegui Itxaso is a Spanish jurist, philosopher and Professor of Philosophy of Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Zaragoza. She was appointed in January 2018 as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights .

#2061

Olaf Schneewind

#94814

Overall Influence

1961 - 2019 (58 years)

Olaf Schneewind was a German-born American microbiologist who made important contributions to the study of bacterial cell wall composition and assembly as well as the pathogenesis of the microbial species S. aureus. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.

#2062

Francys Johnson

Francys Johnson

#79053

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (45 years)

Francys Johnson is an American civil rights attorney, pastor and educator. He is in private practice as an attorney in Statesboro, Georgia. He has lectured on constitutional and criminal law, civil rights and race and politics at Savannah State University and Georgia Southern University.

#2063

Anna Ivey

#83830

Overall Influence

Anna Ivey is a published author and nationally known graduate school admissions counselor at her own firm, Anna Ivey Admissions Counseling. She is the author of The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, published by Harcourt.

#2064

Richard S. Carnell

Richard S. Carnell

#87074

Overall Influence

Richard Scott Carnell is a United States lawyer who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions from 1993 to 1999. Biography Richard S. Carnell was educated at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in 1975. He later attended Harvard Law School, receiving a J.D. in 1982.

#2065

Peter Whelan

#84531

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (45 years)

Peter Whelan is a professor of law at the School of Law, University of Leeds. A qualified New York Attorney-at-Law, Whelan conducts research in competition law and criminal law. He published the first full-length monograph on the criminal enforcement of competition law with Oxford University Press.

#2066

Boel Flodgren

#38134

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Boel Flodgren , born 17 November 1942 in Örebro, Sweden, is a Swedish professor of business law. Between 1992 and 2003 she was the rector of Lund University. In 2011, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Oslo.

#2067

Kenneth Feinberg

Kenneth Feinberg

#56000

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Kenneth Roy Feinberg is an American attorney specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He served as the Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Kennedy, Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. Additionally, Feinberg served as the government-appointed administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. Feinberg was also appointed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to administer the One Fund—the victim assistance fund established in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

#2068

Maya Harris

#50292

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Maya Lakshmi Harris is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. Harris was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign's policy agenda and she also served as chair of the 2020 presidential campaign of her sister, Kamala Harris.

#2069

Jacques Robert

#69997

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (96 years)

Jacques Robert is a French jurist, former member of the Constitutional Council of France, former director of the French-Japanese House in Tokyo, former vice-president of the Venice Commission, honorary president of the University of Paris and president of Panthéon-Assas University from 1979 to 1984. He has been a professor at the universities of Algiers, Rabat, Grenoble, Paris, and Panthéon-Assas.

#2070

Robin Kundis Craig

#107466

Overall Influence

Robin Kundis Craig is a professor at the University of Utah's Law School. She had been the Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund Professory at Florida State University College of Law from 2005 to 2012. She is a leading environmental law scholar who has written important works on water and ocean and coastal issues. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. Professor Craig is the author of The Clean Water Act and the Constitution , Environmental Law in Context and dozens of law review articles shorter works. Her articles address, among other issues, federalism in the regulation of water in the U.S.

#2071

Gilles Cistac

#61260

Overall Influence

1961 - 2015 (54 years)

Gilles Cistac was a French-Mozambican lawyer specialised in constitutional law. He was shot and killed and political motives were suspected. The RENAMO party organised protests. Biography Gilles Cistac was born in 1961 in the French city of Toulouse. He studied public law in Toulouse and graduated there in 1998.

#2072

Péter Polt

#91079

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Péter Polt is a Hungarian jurist, Chief Prosecutor of Hungary from 2000 to 2006 and since 2010. Biography He finished his secondary studies at the Veres Pálné Grammar School in Budapest. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Eötvös Loránd University in 1980. Besides that he participated in postgraduate courses in the University of Strasbourg and the Hague Academy of International Law. He worked for the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic. He became an assistant lecturer in the ELTE Department of Criminal Law in 1983. He was promoted to adjunct in 1985. He worked as a lawyer between 1985 and 1995 after completing the professional examination in 1992.

#2073

Albert J. Rosenthal

#84881

Overall Influence

1919 - 2010 (91 years)

Albert Joseph Rosenthal was an American legal scholar and specialist in constitutional and environmental law. He joined Columbia Law School as a faculty member in 1964 and was appointed as the Maurice T. Moore Professor of Law in 1973. He served as dean of Columbia Law School from 1979 to 1984.

#2074

Kevin Bankston

#61121

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Kevin Stuart Bankston is an American activist and attorney, who specialized in the areas of free speech and privacy law. He is currently Privacy Policy Director at Facebook, where he leads policy work on AI and emerging technologies. He was formerly the director of the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.

#2075

Fredrik Wersäll

#87034

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Claes Fredrik Richardson Wersäll is a Swedish jurist and civil servant who has been the Marshal of the Realm of Sweden and chief of the Royal Court of Sweden since 1 September 2018. Wersäll was educated at Uppsala University, graduating in 1976 with a candidate of law. He was Prosecutor-General of Sweden from 2004 to 2008 and President of the Svea Court of Appeal from 2008 to 2018. He was appointed Marshal of the Realm of Sweden by King Carl XVI Gustaf on 15 January 2018 and took office on 1 September 2018.

#2076

Arthur Berney

#88305

Overall Influence

1930 - Present (94 years)

Arthur Berney is Professor Emeritus at the Boston College Law School. Berney taught courses in constitutional law, communications, and National Security Law. Works With Stephen Dycus, William C. Banks and Peter Raven-Hansen. National Security Law. 4th ed. New York: Aspen Publishers/Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2007.With Stephen Dycus, William C. Banks and Peter Raven-Hansen. National Security Law. 3rd ed. New York: Aspen Law & Business, 2002. "Repeal Drug Prohibition and End the Financing of International Crime." In Global Organized Crime and International Security, edited by Emilio C. Viano, 173–183.

#2077

Daniel W. Hamilton

#113429

Overall Influence

Daniel W. Hamilton is an American lawyer, formerly Dean and Richard J. Morgan Professor of Law at William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His doctorate is in American legal history ; he was a Golieb Fellow in Legal History at New York University School of Law ; he received his J.D. from George Washington University and his B.A. from Oberlin College.

#2078

Larry Soderquist

#92788

Overall Influence

1944 - 2005 (61 years)

Larry D. Soderquist was a noted author and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School from 1981 to 2005 and director at Corporate and Securities Law Institute from 1993 to 2005. Biography Soderquist was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan and received his B.S. from Eastern Michigan University in 1966; his J.D. from Harvard in 1969; and his D.Min. from Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary in 1998. Soderquist was an ordained minister. Before coming to Vanderbilt, Soderquist taught at the University of Notre Dame.

#2079

Jiří Přibáň

#76402

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Jiří Přibáň is a Czech academic, author, translator and essayist specializing in the areas of philosophy of law, sociology and politology. He was promoted to a professorship at the Charles University in Prague in 2002. During his career, he published several books. He regularly appears as a political commentator in the mainstream Czech media, such as Czech Television, Hospodářské noviny, and Právo. He also contributed to Journal of Law and Society and to the BBC World Service. He was a member of the Program Council of the Forum 2000 conference.

#2080

William C. Banks

#88758

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

William Charles Banks is an American law professor and legal scholar in constitutional law, national security law, and counterterrorism law. He is a Professor of Law Emeritus at Syracuse University College of Law and Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs Emeritus at SU's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also the current Chair of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law & National Security.

#2081

Kristen Eik-Nes

#74989

Overall Influence

1922 - 1992 (70 years)

Kristen Borgar Dahler Eik-Nes was a Norwegian medical scientist, known for his contributions to androgen research. Biography Eik-Nes was born at the village of Sparbu in Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. He was the son of Nina Eik-Nes and Knut Eik-Nes. As a young boy he suffered from serious illness which delayed his education. During the German occupation of Norway he was a member of Milorg, and eventually a regional Milorg leader.

#2082

Ira Michael Heyman

Ira Michael Heyman

#55556

Overall Influence

1930 - 2011 (81 years)

Ira Michael Heyman was a Professor of Law and of City and Regional Planning, and was Chancellor of University of California, Berkeley, and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Life Heyman was born in 1930 in New York City. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, and in 1951 from Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth he joined the Theta Chi men's fraternity. After serving as a U.S. Marine Corps officer during the Korean War, he entered Yale Law School, where he became editor of the Yale Law Journal. Following his graduation in 1956, he served as a law clerk for Judge Charles Edward Clark of the U.S.

#2083

Pär Hallström

#35288

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Pär Hallström is a Swedish legal writer and professor emeritus of Law at Umeå University. He graduated from Pantheon-Sorbonne University with a Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures and holds a doctorate in law from Stockholm University.

#2084

Yemi Akinseye George

#98252

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Yemi Akinseye George, SAN is a Nigerian professor of public law and president of the Center for Socio-Legal Studies. He is the principal partner of Yemi Akinseye-George & Partners, a firm which provides qualitative legal and consultancy services to individuals, corporate bodies, and governments within and outside Nigeria.

#2085

Neil Goldschmidt

#47226

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

Neil Edward Goldschmidt is an American businessman and Democratic politician from the state of Oregon who held local, state and federal offices over three decades. After serving as the United States Secretary of Transportation under President Jimmy Carter and governor of Oregon, Goldschmidt was at one time considered the most powerful and influential figure in Oregon's politics. His career and legacy were severely damaged by revelations he raped a young teenage girl in 1973, during his first term as mayor of Portland.

#2086

Claire Finkelstein

#89107

Overall Influence

1982 - Present (42 years)

Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the Director of its Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law. Biography Finkelstein attended Harvard College , the University of Paris, Sorbonne , Columbia Law School , Yale Law School , and the University of Pittsburgh .

#2087

Gray Dorsey

#82807

Overall Influence

1918 - 1997 (79 years)

Gray L. Dorsey was an American law professor. He was professor emeritus of international law at Washington University in St. Louis, and had been the Charles Nagel Professor of Jurisprudence in International Law. He had also been president of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy.

#2088

Karen Scott

#115134

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Karen Nadine Scott is a New Zealand Law academic. She is a full professor at the University of Canterbury. She was elected President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law in June 2019.

#2089

Job Cohen

#46340

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Marius Job Cohen is a retired Dutch politician and jurist who served as Mayor of Amsterdam from 2001 to 2010 and Leader of the Labour Party from 2010 to 2012. Cohen studied Law at the University of Groningen obtaining a Master of Laws degree. Cohen worked as researcher at the Leiden University before finishing his thesis and graduated as a Doctor of Law in Jurisprudence. Cohen worked as a professor of jurisprudence at the State University of Limburg from September 1983 until June 1993, he also served as Rector Magnificus of the State University of Limburg from January 1991. Cohen was appoint...

#2090

Dale A. Whitman

#82762

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Dale A. Whitman is the former James E. Campbell Professor of Law at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO, where he retired in 2007. He received his B.E.S. degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University in 1963 and his LL.B. law degree from Duke University in 1966. After practising for a short period with the firm of O'Melveny & Myers, LLP in Los Angeles, CA, Mr. Whitman began his academic career at the University of North Carolina.

#2091

Peter W. Martin

Peter W. Martin

#74879

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Peter W. Martin has been a law professor since 1972, and Dean from 1980 to 1988, at Cornell Law School. In 1992, together with Thomas R. Bruce, he co-founded the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law.

#2092

Richard W. Garnett

#90154

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl / Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law, a Concurrent Professor of Political Science, and the founding Director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School. He teaches in the areas of criminal law, constitutional law, First Amendment law, and the death penalty. He has contributed to research in such topics as school choice and Catholic social teaching. His articles have appeared in a variety of prominent law journals, including the Cornell Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, and the UCLA Law Review.

#2093

David Chase

#32861

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

David Henry Chase is an American writer, producer and director. He is best known for being the creator, head writer and executive producer of the HBO drama The Sopranos which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007. Chase has also produced and written for shows such as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He created the original series Almost Grown which aired for 10 episodes in 1988 and 1989. He has won seven Emmy Awards. Chase's film debut came in 2012 with Not Fade Away, followed by The Many Saints of Newark , a prequel film to the TV series The Sopranos.

#2094

Eva Lomnicka

#97472

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Eva Zofia Lomnicka is a Professor of Law at King's College London School of Law. She contributes to a number of leading texts and is an expert on the law of consumer credit and financial services law more generally. She has been appointed Queen’s Counsel Honoris Causa in 2020 and retired as a Barrister from Lincoln’s Inn.

#2095

Carl Bogus

#74874

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Carl T. Bogus is an author and Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island. Education and career Bogus received both his J.D. and A.B. degrees from Syracuse University. He joined the faculty of Roger Williams University School of Law in 1996 as an associate professor, and became a full professor there in 2002.

#2096

Russell Hittinger

#45116

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Francis Russell Hittinger III is the Warren Chair of Catholic Studies and Research Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa. Hittinger's scholarship is focused on the intersection of philosophy, religion, and law, with particular emphasis on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. For the past several years he has worked and published extensively on the history of Catholic social thought since the 18th century.

#2097

Brad Henry

#47799

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Charles Bradford Henry is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 26th governor of Oklahoma from 2003 to 2011. A Democrat, he previously served in the Oklahoma Senate from 1992 to 2003. Henry was elected governor in 2002 with 43% of the vote and reelected for a second term in 2006 with 67% of the vote. He was the third governor and second Democrat in Oklahoma history to serve two consecutive terms, along with Democrat George Nigh and Republican Frank Keating. Henry was unable to seek a third term in the 2010 election due to term limits set by the Oklahoma Constitution. He was succ...

#2098

Danielle Conway

#87557

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Danielle Monique Conway is an American lawyer and academic. She has served as the Dean of Penn State Dickinson Law since 2019 and is an expert in government procurement law and intellectual property law. Her scholarship is focused on advancing the public interest through insights into technology and innovation and their impact on modern society. She is an advocate of "social entrepreneurism," with an emphasis on empowering Indigenous Peoples and minority groups to effectively and creatively use business, innovation, and intellectual property rights and protections to build capacity within those communities.

#2099

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

#27020

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. He conducts research into the network economy. Earlier he spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is the co-author of Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think and author of Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age , which won the 2010 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book and the 2010 Don K. Price Award for Best Book in Science and Technology Politics, and has written over a hundred articles and book chapters.

#2100

Judith Whitworth

#89459

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Judith Ann Whitworth is an Australian medical researcher in the areas of kidney function and blood pressure. Now an emeritus professor, she is the former director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Howard Florey Professor of Medical Research at the Australian National University .

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