University of Arizona Law Ranked #17th Among Public Schools for Scholarly Impact

Oct. 24, 2024
Suzi Morales

"It comes as no surprise that Arizona Law continues to excel in scholarly impact,"

College of Law sign

Once again, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law  faculty are among the most cited in the country. The college has been ranked 17th in the nation among public law schools and 38th overall for scholarly impact according to the newly released 2024 edition of the  Sisk et al. study of scholarly impact, the leading citation ranking of law faculty.   

The ranking is calculated from the mean and median citations to tenured faculty scholarship for the years 2019-2023, with more weight on mean impact. Schools that have a relatively high median score, such as University of Arizona Law, have strong research contributions from many faculty members rather than from only a few highly cited scholars. In median scholarly impact, University of Arizona Law ranks 26th in the nation.    

“Working with our faculty every day, it comes as no surprise that Arizona Law continues to excel in scholarly impact," said Associate Dean for Research Andrew Coan. “From criminal law to family law, technology law, corporate law, international trade, and Indigenous peoples’ law, Arizona Law faculty are illuminating the most pressing issues of our time and advocating for a better future. Their work consistently places us among the top public law schools in the U.S.” 

Five of the most-cited faculty for University of Arizona Law joined the college within the last decade, part of the college’s strategic efforts to recruit the most innovative and impactful scholars from across the legal academy. The professors listed specialize in a range of fields including environmental law, technology, criminal law, constitutional law, business law, Indigenous law and law and sexuality. Two eminent scholars from the college’s Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy program are among the group.     

The top 10 most-cited faculty members from University of Arizona Law are (listed in alphabetical order): 

 

Andrew Coan  
Associate Dean for Research; Milton O. Riepe Chair in Constitutional Law; Director, William H. Rehnquist Center on the Constitutional Structures of Government 

Andrew Coan teaches Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, and related subjects. In 2024, he was named Arizona Law's Distinguished Legal Scholar, an award that recognizes one outstanding faculty member per year for highly valued contributions to research and the intellectual life of the College. His book “Prosecuting the President” was a finalist for the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award. 

  • Rationing the Constitution: How Judicial Capacity Shapes Supreme Court Decision-Making (Harvard University Press 2019). 

  • Prosecuting the President: How Special Prosecutors Hold Presidents Accountable and Protect the Rule of Law (Oxford University Press 2019).  

  • Dobbs v. Brown, Journal of American Constitutional History (2024). 

Kirsten Engel  

Charles E. Ares Professor of Law; Co-Director of Environmental Law, Science & Policy Program   

Engel teaches and researches in the areas of environmental and administrative law. Before entering academia, she was acting chief of the Environmental Protection Division of the Massachusetts Office of Attorney General and senior counsel for that office’s Public Protection Bureau.        

Marc Miller

Marc Miller  
Dean, Ralph W. Bilby Professor of Law    

Miller writes and teaches about environmental law and policy and criminal law and policy. He is the author of more than 70 articles and essays on a wide range of environmental, criminal justice, immigration and legal theory topics.          

  • Criminal Procedures: Cases, Statutes & Executive Materials (6th Edition, co-authored with Ronald Wright, Kay Levine and Jenia Turner 2019). 

Barak Orbach

Barak Orbach  
Robert H. Mundheim Professor of Law and Business, Director of Business Law Program   

Orbach’s areas of expertise are antitrust, corporate governance, regulation, and the digital economy. In 2024, he received the Mallen Award, given annually recognize distinguished business and economics published works that make an extraordinary scholarly contribution to the field of motion picture industry studies. 

Sergio Puig

Sergio Puig  
Evo DeConcini Professor of Law; Director, International Trade and Business Law Program   

Puig’s academic interests include topics related to international economic law, international arbitration, law and society, network analysis and the law and the legal profession. He is co-editor in chief of the Journal of International Economic Law and is the author of the book, “At the Margins of Globalization” (2021).       

Simone Sepe 
Chester H. Smith Professor, Professor of Law and Finance 

Sepe’s areas of expertise include business organizations, corporate finance, contract theory, law and economics, law and philosophy, and empirical methods. His main scholarship focuses on theoretical and empirical problems related to corporate governance, although he has recently expanded his research interest to contract law, the theory of institutions, and political philosophy. 

Rebecca Tsosie  
Regents Professor and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law  

Tsosie is widely known for her work in the fields of federal Indian law and Indigenous peoples’ human rights. She has published widely on sovereignty, self-determination, cultural pluralism, environmental policy and cultural rights. She teaches in the areas of federal Indian law, property, constitutional law, critical race theory and cultural resources law.       

Professor Williams

Robert A. Williams Jr.  
Regents Professor, E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Chair, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program   

Williams has represented tribal groups and members before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Canada.        

  • “Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights, and the Legal History of Racism in America” (2005).       

  • “Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization” (2012).       

Andrew Woods headshot

Andrew Keane Woods 
Milton O. Riepe Professor of Law & Distinguished Legal Scholar 

Woods’s research focuses on the global regulation of technology. He is the director of the TechLaw program at the University of Arizona College of Law. In the Spring of 2023, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Copenhagen on a Fulbright Schuman Innovation Award. 

  • The New Social Contracts, 77 Vanderbilt Law Review (forthcoming). 

  • Shallow Fakes (co-authored with Albertina Antognini), 128 Penn State Law Review 69 (2023). 

Jordan Blair Woods 
Professor of Law 

Woods writes and teaches courses in the areas of criminal law and procedure, law and sexuality, family law and legal ethics. He is a co-director of the Family and Juvenile Law Certificate Program. His main areas of research focus on the regulation of law enforcement, criminal justice issues affecting LGBTQ populations, and the legal regulation of youth in family and child welfare contexts. 

  • The New Sexual Deviancy, 113 Georgetown Law Journal (forthcoming 2025).