Succeeding Founding Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, L. Song Richardson became Dean of UCI Law, effective Jan. 1, 2018. She received her AB from Harvard College and her JD from Yale Law School. An award-winning teacher and scholar, Dean Richardson’s interdisciplinary research uses lessons from cognitive and social psychology to study decision-making and judgment, including its implications for artificial intelligence. Her scholarship has been published in numerous law journals, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Duke and Northwestern. Her article, “Police Efficiency and the Fourth Amendment” was selected as a “Must Read” by the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. Her co-edited book, The Constitution and the Future of Criminal Justice in America, was published by Cambridge University Press and she is a co-editor of Criminal Procedure, Cases and Materials published by West Academic Publishing. Currently, she is working on a book that examines the history of race in the U.S. and its implications for law and policy.

Dean Richardson’s legal career has included partnership at a boutique criminal law firm, work as a state and federal public defender, and serving as an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. A leading expert on implicit racial and gender bias, Richardson is frequently invited to speak to law firms, district attorney and public defender offices, police departments, universities, judges, bar associations, and private industry about the science of implicit bias.

Dean Richardson has won numerous awards and recognitions, including the American Association of Law School’s (AALS) Derrick Bell Award, which recognizes a faculty member’s extraordinary contributions to legal education through mentoring, teaching, and scholarship. She was recently named one of the Top Women Lawyers in California by The Daily Journal, one of the 100 Most Influential business and opinion shapers in Orange County, and one of the two most influential Korean Americans in Orange County.

Dean Richardson is a member of the American Law Institute, and she serves on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools.