Sylvia A. Law (born 1942) is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Medicine and Psychiatry and the co-director of the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

School of Law.

Biography

Law was born in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

in 1942 and attended public schools in Minnesota,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

and

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. She earned her B.A. (1964) from

Antioch College Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...

and her J.D. (1968) from

New York University School of Law The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest survivin ...

. In 1984, Law became the first lawyer in the United States selected as a MacArthur Prize Fellow. She has been active in the Society of American Law Teachers, served as president of the organization from 1988 to 1990. In 2004, Prof. Law was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. In 2013, the Sylvia A. Law Fellowship in Economic Justice was created as part of the Hays Civil Liberties Program at NYU Law School. She lives in New York City, Woodstock, New York and Kailua, Hawaii. Her son, Benjamin Ensminger-Law was born in 1977 and is a banker in New York City.

Representative Publications

*''Blue Cross: What Went Wrong?'' (2nd ed. 1976) *''Pain and Profit: The Politics of Malpractice'' (1978) *"Women, Work, Welfare and the Preservation of Patriarchy," 131 ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'' 1249 (1983) *"Rethinking Sex and the Constitution," 132 ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'' 955 (1984) *"Crystal Eastman: NYU Law Graduate," 66 ''New York University Law Review'' 1963 (1991) *"Physician Assisted Death: An Essay on Rights and Remedies," 55 ''Maryland Law Review'' 292 (1996) *''Law and the American Health Care System'' (1997) *"Ending Welfare as We Know It," 49 ''Stanford Law Review'' 471 (1997) *"Homosexuality and the Social Meaning of Gender," 1988 ''Wisconsin Law Review'' 187 (1998) *"Sex Discrimination and Insurance for Contraception," 73 ''Washington Law Review'' 363 (1998) *"White Privilege and Affirmative Action," 32 ''Akron Law Review'' 603 (1999) *"Commercial Sex: Beyond Decriminalization," 73 ''California Law Review'' 526 (2000)

References

NYU School of Law Faculty BiographyNYU School of Law Faculty Profile
*Jeffrey Toobin
“Sex and the Supremes: Why the Court’s next big battle may be about gay rights"
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', Aug. 1. 2005.
Full CV
21st-century American lawyers 1942 births Living people MacArthur Fellows Lawyers from New York City 21st-century American women lawyers {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub