Deborah R. Hensler is Judge John W. Ford Professor of Dispute Resolution at Stanford Law School, where she was also Associate Dean for Graduate Studies from 2006 to 2019. Between 1998 and 2003, she served as Director of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. She teaches courses on alternative dispute resolution, complex litigation, and the use of policy analysis in the law. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Professor Hensler was director of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) and a faculty member of the RAND Graduate School and the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She still serves as a member of the board of overseers for the RAND Institute for Civil Justice
Professor Hensler’s research focuses on dispute resolution, complex litigation and the use of policy analysis in the law. She is the lead author of Class Action Dilemmas: Pursuing Public Goals for Private Gain (2000) and has published numerous research monographs and journal articles on alternative dispute resolution, class actions, mass tort litigation, and compensation for personal injury. In 2006, she wrote “Bringing Shutts Into the Future: Rethinking Protection of Future Claimants in Mass Tort Class Actions” (UMKC Law Review). She was on the Editorial Board of Law & Society Review from 2000-2003. She has appeared before judicial, legislative, and executive agencies at the state and federal level to discuss tort liability and civil procedure issues.
Professor Hensler received her Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973 and her A.B. from Hunter College summa cum laude in 1963.
