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,
#2351
Knut Selmer
#95322
Overall Influence
1924 - 2009 (85 years)
Knut Sejersted Selmer was a Norwegian legal scholar. He was born in Aker as a son of professor Ernst Westerlund Selmer and Ella Sejersted , and was the brother of Ernst Sejersted Selmer. He was a grandnephew of Johan Selmer and Jens Selmer and a first cousin of Francis Sejersted. He finished his secondary education at the Haagaas School in 1944 and graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1949. He was a deputy judge in Nord-Troms and Fredrikstad between 1949 and 1952. In January 1950 he married Elisabeth Schweigaard.
Go to Profile#2352
Krystyna Chojnicka
#95576
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Prof. Dr Hab. Krystyna Chojnicka is a Polish lawyer and political scientist. She finished her law degree and a PhD in political science at Jagiellonian University. In 2008, she was voted the dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration at Jagiellonian University.
Go to Profile#2353
Janne Nijman
#78403
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Janne Elisabeth Nijman is a professor of international law at the University of Amsterdam and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Her main research interests concern the history and theory of international law, questions of subjectivity in international law, and the role of cities in international law and global governance.
Go to Profile#2354
James C. Spindler
#106124
Overall Influence
James C. Spindler is an American lawyer, currently the Sylvan Lang Professor of Law at University of Texas at Austin, and also a published author. Previously, Spindler taught at the University of Southern California and practiced in the New York and Hong Kong offices of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in its securities and banking groups. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an A.B. in Political Economy from Princeton University.
Go to Profile#2355
David Yardley
#55905
Overall Influence
1929 - 2014 (85 years)
Sir David Charles Miller Yardley was a British legal scholar and public servant. Although a barrister, Yardley spent his legal career in academia. From 1953 to 1974, he taught jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, where he was a fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He then held chairs at the University of Birmingham, Oxford Polytechnic, and the University College at Buckingham. He then served as chair of the Commission for Local Administration in England from 1982 to 1994, for which he was knighted.
Go to Profile#2356
Anupam Bishayee
#129254
Overall Influence
#2357
Willem van Genugten
#96919
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Willem J.M. van Genugten is Professor em. of International Law at Tilburg University. Since 2008, he has been Extraordinary Professor of International Law at the North-West University, South Africa. He has published extensively on a variety of issues in international law.
Go to Profile#2358
Norman Lloyd
#34945
Overall Influence
1914 - 2021 (107 years)
Norman Nathan Lloyd was an American actor, producer, director, and centenarian with a career in entertainment spanning nearly a century. He worked in every major facet of the industry, including theatre, radio, television, and film, with a career that started in 1923. Lloyd's final film, Trainwreck, was released in 2015, after he turned 100. Lloyd remains the longest-lived male actor from Classic Hollywood.
Go to Profile#2359
Eduardo Barcesat
#101547
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Eduardo Salvador Barcesat is an Argentine constitutional lawyer and defender of human rights. Biography He studied law in Buenos Aires. Between 1960 and 1962 he was assistant in the Chair of Philosophy of Law in charge of Dr. Lucas A. Gioja.
Go to Profile#2360
Henry Harris
#18967
Overall Influence
1925 - 2014 (89 years)
Sir Henry Harris was an Australian professor of medicine at the University of Oxford who led pioneering work on cancer and human genetics in the 2000s. Early life and education Harris was born in 1925 to a Jewish family in the Soviet Union. In 1929, his family emigrated to Australia. Harris studied at Sydney Boys High School from 1937 to 1941. In 1941, he first read modern languages, but was subsequently attracted to medicine through his literary interests. He studied medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and began a career in medical research rather than in clinical practice.
Go to Profile#2361
Karim Rashid
#9463
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Karim Rashid is an Egyptian-born and Canadian raised industrial designer. His designs include luxury goods, furniture, lighting, surface design, brand identity and packaging. Time magazine has described him as the "most famous industrial designer in all the Americas" and the "Prince of Plastic". He is based in New York City, as well as Belgrade, Miami and India.
Go to Profile#2362
Mel Lipman
#40726
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (88 years)
Melvin S. Lipman, aka Mel Lipman was an attorney, civil libertarian and humanist activist. He was a retired bank auditor, arbitrator, mediator and college instructor, having taught Constitutional Law and US History at several Las Vegas colleges.
Go to Profile#2363
Diana Villiers Negroponte
#54839
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Diana Mary Villiers Negroponte is an English-born American trade lawyer, Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, adjunct professor of international relations at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, and author of several books. Her professional name is Diana Villiers Negroponte. She is the wife of John Negroponte, the former United States Deputy Secretary of State and former U.S. Director of National Intelligence.
Go to Profile#2364
Vladimir Nazhimov
#114745
Overall Influence
1923 - 2000 (77 years)
Vladimir Pavlovich Nazhimov was a Russian lawyer and a specialist in the field of criminal procedure. Professor, Doctor of Law Sciences. Biography Vladimir Pavlovich Nazhimov was born on 23 July 1923 in the village of Kunevichi into a peasant family.
Go to Profile#2365
Porfirio Muñoz Ledo
#71200
Overall Influence
1933 - 2023 (90 years)
Porfirio Alejandro Muñoz Ledo y Lazo de la Vega was a Mexican politician. He was one of the founders of the Party of the Democratic Revolution , and served as Ambassador to Cuba from January 2022 until his death.
Go to Profile#2366
Charles H. Turner
#37065
Overall Influence
1936 - 2018 (82 years)
Charles H. Turner was an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Prior to his presidential appointment as U.S. Attorney, Turner worked under his predecessor, Sidney I. Lezak, for 14 years. He was appointed as Lezak's replacement by President Ronald Reagan.
Go to Profile#2367
Hilary Koprowski
#2958
Overall Influence
1916 - 2013 (97 years)
Hilary Koprowski was a Polish virologist and immunologist active in the United States who demonstrated the world's first effective live polio vaccine. He authored or co-authored over 875 scientific papers and co-edited several scientific journals.
Go to Profile#2368
Bob Casey Jr.
#56226
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Robert Patrick Casey Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who is the senior United States senator from Pennsylvania, since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, Casey was the Pennsylvania Auditor General from 1997 to 2004 and the Pennsylvania Treasurer from 2004 to 2007. Since 2023, Casey has been the dean of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation.
Go to Profile#2369
Richard Hendler
#48633
Overall Influence
Richard Michael Hendler is an American attorney and Clinical Professor of Law in Business at New York University Stern School of Business where he teaches business law, entertainment law, and entrepreneurial law at the graduate and undergraduate levels and Law for the Management Executive for the EMBA program.
Go to Profile#2370
Steven L. Emanuel
#100129
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Steven L. Emanuel is an American attorney who is an author of law school outlines and other law school study aids. Education and bar admissions Emanuel is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the bar in the U.S. states of New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts.
Go to Profile#2371
Sonja West
#93869
Overall Influence
Sonja R. West is an American legal scholar and writer working as the Otis Brumby Distinguished Professor in First Amendment Law at University of Georgia. Education West earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1993 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998. As an undergraduate, she wrote for The Daily Iowan.
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James Allan
#74654
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
James Allan is a Canadian-Australian law professor and writer. He is the Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland. Allan is a prominent figure at the CPAC. Allan holds specific views on Hate Speech. Allan has views on Indigenous matters such as the voice. "Kanye is a brave man. He and his girlfriend were wearing shirts that say white lives matter, and he's taken a bit of heat for that." Professor James Allan
Go to Profile#2373
Nancy Baxter
#65028
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Nancy Baxter is a Canadian surgeon who is a professor and the Head of Melbourne University's School of Population and Global Health, while continuing to maintain her appointment as Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She is a scientist with the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and is a senior scientist in the Cancer Theme Group with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences . Baxter has board certifications through the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery .
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Harold G. Maier
#111643
Overall Influence
1937 - 2014 (77 years)
Harold G. Maier was a noted scholar in the field of international law, international civil litigation, and conflict of laws. After receiving his undergraduate education at the University of Cincinnati, he obtained his law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He also earned an LL.M. from the University of Michigan. He held the title of David Daniels Allen Professor of Law Emeritus at the Vanderbilt University Law School.
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Arthur Ripstein
#97882
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Arthur Ripstein is a Canadian philosopher and Professor of Law and Philosophy and University Professor at the University of Toronto where he is Howard Beck QC Chair in law. He is known for his works on Kantian philosophy and is a winner of Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize.
Go to Profile#2376
D. Gordon Smith
#104770
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
D. Gordon Smith is the current dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University . Smith has taught classes in business associations, contracts, corporate finance, law & entrepreneurship, and securities regulation.
Go to Profile#2377
James Hahn
#62771
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
James Kenneth Hahn is an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat, Hahn was elected the 40th mayor of Los Angeles in 2001. He served until 2005, at which time he was defeated in his bid for re-election. Prior to his term as Mayor, Hahn served in several other capacities for the city of Los Angeles, including deputy city attorney , city controller and city attorney . Hahn is the only individual in the city's history to have been elected to all three citywide offices. He is currently a sitting judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Go to Profile#2378
Marcus Kaufman
#106388
Overall Influence
1929 - 2003 (74 years)
Marcus Maurice Kaufman served as the 103rd justice on the Supreme Court of California from March 18, 1987, until his retirement on January 31, 1990. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Kaufman served for 17 years as an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Second Division.
Go to Profile#2379
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
#130486
Overall Influence
#2380
Stephen Livingstone
#107032
Overall Influence
1961 - 2004 (43 years)
Stephen Livingstone was Professor of Human Rights Law at Queen's University Belfast from 1998 until his sudden death in March 2004. He was Head of the School of Law from 2000 to 2003 and Director of the Human Rights Centre thereafter. He was an internationally renowned scholar in the fields of human rights, constitutional law and prison law, and was a member of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. The QUB School of Law established a studentship in his honour in the areas of human rights law or public law. The fund is supported also by donations from his family and friends.
Go to Profile#2381
Sarah Lisanby
#40870
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Sarah H. Lisanby is an American psychiatrist who studies the use of neurostimulation devices to treat mental illness. Since 2015 she has directed the division of the National Institute of Mental Health working on translational research.
Go to Profile#2382
Christian Siriano
#18981
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (39 years)
Christian Vincent Siriano is an American fashion designer and member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America . Siriano first gained attention after winning the fourth season of American design competition show Project Runway in 2007, becoming the series' youngest winner. He launched his namesake "Christian Siriano" collection in 2008, which brought in revenue of over $1.2 million by 2010 and was estimated to have reached $5 million by 2012.
Go to Profile#2383
Jennifer Daskal
#81533
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Jennifer C. Daskal is a Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Tech, Law, Security Program at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C. Her work focuses on terrorism, national security, and criminal law.
Go to Profile#2384
Phoebe Okowa
#56408
Overall Influence
Phoebe Nyawade Okowa is a Kenyan lawyer and Professor of Public International Law and Director of Graduate Studies at Queen Mary University of London. In 2021 she was elected to the International Law Commission for a period of five years, starting January 1, 2023, becoming the first African woman to serve as a member of the Commission. In 2017 she was appointed a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague by Kenya. An advocate of the High Court of Kenya, she has acted as counsel and consultant to governments and non-governmental organisations on questions of international law be...
Go to Profile#2385
Andrei Popescu
#76413
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Andrei Popescu is a Romanian lawyer and a judge at the General Court of the European Union. He graduated in law from the University of Bucharest in 1971 and obtained his doctorate in 1980. From 1971 to 1973, he was trainee assistant lecturer; from 1974 to 1985, he was a tenured assistant lecturer; and from 1985 to 1990 he was a lecturer in labour law at the University of Bucharest. From 1991 to 1991, he was a principal researcher at the National Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection. In 1991 he became Deputy Director at the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and was Director from 1992 to 1996.
Go to Profile#2386
Harvey Pitt
#46943
Overall Influence
1945 - 2023 (78 years)
Harvey L. Pitt was an American lawyer. He served as the 26th chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for 18 months from August 2001 to February 2003, a period that encompassed the September 11 attacks and the Enron scandal.
Go to Profile#2387
Lo Chang-fa
#110970
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Lo Chang-fa is a Taiwanese jurist. Lo completed a bachelor's degree in law at Fu Jen Catholic University, followed by a Master of Law at the National Taiwan University College of Law. He obtained a second Master of Law degree at Harvard Law School, and remained at Harvard to pursue a Doctor of Juridical Science. Lo returned to Taiwan and practiced law in Taipei before he joined the faculty of the NTU College of Law, where he was appointed chair and distinguished professor. During his tenure as dean of the college of law, he founded two academic journals, the Asian Journal of WTO and International Health Law and Policy in 2006 and the Contemporary Asia Arbitration Journal in 2008.
Go to Profile#2388
Stuart Diamond
#51495
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Stuart Diamond is an American professor, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, attorney, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and author who has taught negotiation for more than 20 years at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. He currently teaches the course at University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science as "Engineering Negotiation" and a Negotiations Course at Penn Law School.
Go to Profile#2389
Monte N. Stewart
#103909
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Monte Neil Stewart is the founding president of the Marriage Law Foundation, the former United States Attorney for Nevada, and a former Special Assistant Attorney General and Counsel to the Governor of Utah.
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Bill Blass
#7173
Overall Influence
1922 - 2002 (80 years)
William Ralph Blass was an American fashion designer. He was the recipient of many fashion awards, including seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology's Lifetime Achievement Award . Early life Blass was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of Ralph Aldrich Blass, a traveling hardware salesman, and his wife, Ethyl Blass.
Go to Profile#2391
Dan W. Reicher
#87271
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Dan William Reicher is an American lawyer who was U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Clinton Administration. Reicher is currently executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, a joint center of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he also holds faculty positions. Reicher joined Stanford in 2011 from Google, where he served since 2007 as Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives for the company's venture Google.org.
Go to Profile#2392
Frank Macchiarola
#41750
Overall Influence
1941 - 2012 (71 years)
Frank J. Macchiarola , was an American academic. His interests and expertise spanned the legal, academic, executive management and public service areas. From 2008 until his death, Macchiarola was the Chancellor of St. Francis College, after having been the college's president from 1996 to 2008.
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James W. McElhaney
#131076
Overall Influence
1937 - 2017 (80 years)
James W. McElhaney was the Baker & Hostetler Distinguished Scholar in Trial Practice and Joseph C. Hostetler Professor Emeritus of Trial Practice and Advocacy at Case Western Reserve University's School of Law. He received his A.B. from Duke University in 1960, and his law degree from the Duke University School of Law in 1962. For many years, he wrote a column on trial practice for the American Bar Association Journal. James McElhaney died on October 20, 2017.
Go to Profile#2394
Elinor Schroeder
#108856
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Elinor Purves Schroeder is an American lawyer. She is the Paul E. Wilson Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas School of Law. Education Schroeder obtained her B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School in 1968 and 1974 respectively. While at the University of Michigan, she was an associate editor of the Michigan Law Review.
Go to Profile#2395
Judith Vladeck
#84994
Overall Influence
1923 - 2007 (84 years)
Judith Pomarlen Vladeck was a prominent American labor lawyer and civil rights advocate, particularly on behalf of women. She helped set new legal precedents against sex discrimination and age discrimination.
Go to Profile#2396
Chris Noonan
#104310
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Chris Noonan is a New Zealand legal academic in trade, competition and company law at the University of Auckland. He was appointed the first Chief Trade Adviser to the Pacific Islands Forum in 2009, and resigned from that position in September 2011 and was succeeded by Edwini Kessie, a legal practitioner. He has a PhD and LLB from the University of Auckland.
Go to Profile#2397
Jackie Cooper
#45022
Overall Influence
1922 - 2011 (89 years)
John Cooper Jr. was an American actor and director. Known as Jackie Cooper, he began his career performing in film as a child, and successfully transitioned to adult roles and directing in both film and television. At age nine, he became the only child and youngest person nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the 1931 film Skippy. He was a featured member of the Our Gang ensemble in 1929–1931, starred in the television series The People's Choice and Hennesey , and played journalist Perry White in the 1978–1987 Superman films.
Go to Profile#2398
Alireza Feyz
#64338
Overall Influence
1925 - 2019 (94 years)
Alireza Feyz was an Iranian author, researcher of Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic philosophy, professor at the University of Tehran and jurist. Birth Alireza Feyz, son of Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Feyz and descendant of Mohsen Fayz Kashani, was born on 1925 in Qom, Iran.
Go to Profile#2399
Michael V. Vitiello
#131874
Overall Influence
#2400
Allan F. Smith
#101553
Overall Influence
1911 - 1994 (83 years)
Allan Frederick Smith was a law professor and dean at the University of Michigan Law School. He was an expert in personal property law and real estate transactions. Before joining the University of Michigan faculty in 1947, he served for the Office of Price Administration and the United States Army. Smith was interim president of the University of Michigan in 1979 after the resignation of Robben Wright Fleming.
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