Deborah Hensler
![Deborah Hensler](https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/deborah-hensler-2-400x400.jpg)
Deborah Hensler
- Judge John W. Ford Professor of Dispute Resolution
- Associate Dean for Graduate Studies
- Director of Law and Policy Lab
- Room N349, Neukom Building
Expertise
- Access to Justice
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Civil Procedure & Litigation
- Class Actions & Mass Litigation
- Comparative Law
- Complex Litigation
- Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)
- Law & Society
- Legal Profession
- Mass Torts/Class Actions
- Mediation & Dispute Resolution
- Medical Malpractice
- Policy Analysis
- Product Liability
- Public Policy & Empirical Studies
- Third-Party Litigation Finance
- Transnational Litigation & Arbitration
Biography
Deborah R. Hensler’s empirical research on dispute resolution, complex litigation, class actions and mass tort liability has won international recognition. A political scientist and public policy analyst who was the director of the RAND’s Institute for Civil Justice before joining the Stanford Law School faculty, she has testified before state and federal legislatures in the United States on issues ranging from alternative dispute resolution to asbestos litigation and mass torts and consulted with judges and lawyers outside of the United States on the design of class action regimes. Professor Hensler is the organizer of the Stanford Globalization of Class Actions Exchange, which is spearheading international collaborative research on class actions and group litigation procedures by scholars in Asia, Europe, Latin and North America, and the Middle East. Noted for her decades-long scholarship on asbestos litigation in the United States, her research and publications have described and interpreted the trajectory of mass claims world-wide. At Stanford Prof. Hensler teaches seminars on complex litigation, transnational litigation, the legal profession, and research design for empirical legal studies and serves as associate dean of graduate studies. She has also collaborated with Dean Emeritus Paul Brest on the development of the law schools’ Law & Public Policy Laboratory.
Professor Hensler is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science and has been awarded a personal chair in empirical studies of mass claims resolution by Tilburg University (Netherlands). In 2014 she was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by Leuphana University (Germany).
Education
- BA City University of New York 1963
- PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1973
Courses
Affiliations & Honors
- Member, Board of Overseers, Rand Institute of Civil Justice
- Member (1993-1999), Board of Directors, American Judicature Society
- Member (1997-2001), Board of Directors, American Inns of Court, Leadership Council
- Thorsten Sellin Fellow (2002-Present), American Academy of Political and Social Science
- Recipient, Robert McKay Award for Tort Scholarship, 2002
![Students in Classroom](https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/classroom_N6M2193-915x783.jpg)
Policy Practicum: Mediation Confidentiality and Attorney Malpractice in California
Many believe litigation by patent trolls-those in the business of asserting patents rather than making products-is rampant and has harmed innovation and raised consumer prices. This concern has spread to Congress and the U.S. Patent Office, which are considering new regulation of patent trolls. However, there remains insufficient data to determine the amount and impact of patent troll litigation. Students selected for this course will work with renowned patent law scholar Mark Lemley and Law, Science & Technology Teaching Fellow Shawn Miller to produce the first patent litigation database to include comprehensive identification of the type of patent plaintiff involved in each lawsuit. Students’ principal responsibility will be to identify and code patent plaintiffs by type.
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State Can Pursue Sex-Test Maker
Daily Journal
Professor Deborah Hensler weighs in on the relationship between "public enforcement of the law and private enforcement of the law" in this Daily Journal article by Emily Green. California can sue the maker of a fetus gender test kit for false advertising even though buyers of the kit already settled a…
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