M. Elizabeth Magill

  • David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus
  • President, University of Pennsylvania
M. Elizabeth “Liz” Magill became president of the University of Pennsylvania on July 1, 2022. As executive vice president and provost of the University of Virginia from 2019-22, Magill oversaw the University’s teaching and research activities. She directed the academic administration of the 11 schools, the library, art museums, public service activities, numerous University centers and foreign study programs. 
 
Before becoming provost, Magill served seven years as the Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and dean of Stanford Law School. Before joining Stanford, she was on the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law for 15 years, serving as vice dean, the Joseph Weintraub–Bank of America Distinguished Professor of Law, and Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Professor. 
 
Magill is a distinguished scholar and teacher of administrative and constitutional law. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute, she has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, held a fellowship in the Law and Public Affairs Program at Princeton University, and was the Thomas Jefferson visiting professor at Downing College, Cambridge University. Her scholarly articles have been published in leading law reviews, and she has won several awards for her scholarly contributions.
 
At Stanford, Magill established an innovative Law and Policy Lab, a set of classes designed to teach policymaking by tackling real-life policy challenges for actual clients. She also launched the Global Initiative, which established a foundational course, “Going Global: Advising Clients in a Global Economy,” along with classes taking students and faculty to China, Latin America, India and Europe, and funded by the Stanford Law School’s largest alumni gift ever. She expanded and redesigned student life initiatives, with a strong emphasis on diversity and inclusion; and oversaw the expansion of Stanford Law’s public service commitments in the local community and beyond. Magill also presided over the largest faculty revitalization at the law school in decades, hiring nearly 30 percent of the present faculty.
 
After completing her B.A. in history at Yale University in 1988, Magill served as a senior legislative assistant for energy and natural resources for U.S. Senator Kent Conrad, a position she held for four years. She left the Hill to attend the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was articles development editor of the Virginia Law Review and received several awards for academic and scholarly achievement. After graduating in 1995, Magill clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Magill is the first woman to serve as provost at UVA.

Education

  • J.D.
    University of Virginia School of Law
    1995
  • B.A.
    Yale University
    1988

Textbooks

Administrative Law: The American Public Law System: Cases and Materials (with Cuéllar Mariano-Florentino et al.), West Academic (8 ed. 2019).

Book Chapters

Comparative Positive Political Theory and Empirics (with Daniel R. Ortiz), in Comparative Administrative Law, Edward Elgar (2 ed. 2017).
Comparative Positive Political Theory (with Daniel R. Ortiz), in Comparative Administrative Law, Edward Elgar, 134–147 (2010).
Images of Representation, in Issues in Legal Scholarship: The Reformation of American Administrative Law, article 5 (2005).
Step Two of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, in A Guide to Judicial and Political Review of Federal Agencies, American Bar Association, 85–102 (2005).
Judicial Review, in Developments in Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, American Bar Association, 113–132 (2003).

Articles & Reviews

Allocating Power within Agencies (with Adrian Vermeule), 120 Yale Law Journal 1032–1083 (2011).
Agency Self-Regulation, 77 George Washington Law Review 859–903 (2009).
Standing for the Public: A Lost History, 95 Virginia Law Review 1131–1199 (2009).
Temporary Accidents?, 106 Michigan Law Review 1021–1040 (2008).
The First Word, 16 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 27–53 (2007).
Agency Choice of Policymaking Forum, 71 University of Chicago Law Review 1383–1447 (2004).
The Revolution That Wasn’t, 99 Northwestern University Law Review 47–76 (2004).
Beyond Powers and Branches in Separation of Powers Law, 150 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 603–660 (2001).
Judicial Review Part I: Administrative Process Committees: Chapter 6 (with Mark Seidenfeld), 2001-2002 113–132 (2001).
The Real Separation in Separation of Powers Law, 86 Virginia Law Review 1127–1198 (2000).

Reports & Datasets

TestimonyThe 60th Anniversary of the Administrative Procedure Act: Where Do We Go from Here? , US Government Print Office 69–77, 99 (2006).

Op-Eds, Blogs, Shorter Works

A Tribute to Richard A. Merrill, 93 Virginia Law Review 835–839 (2007).

Current Courses

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