Professor Allison Orr Larsen named 2026 Andrew Carnegie Fellow

The fellowship supports bold scholarship on pressing issues facing American democracy.

Allison Orr Larsen, the Alfred Wilson & Mary I.W. Lee Professor of Law and Taylor Reveley Research Professor at William & Mary Law School, has been named a 2026 Andrew Carnegie Fellow by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The fellowship supports bold scholarship on pressing issues facing American democracy. Larsen is one of 24 fellows selected from more than 380 nominees and will receive a stipend to support her work. The 2026 class is focused on research aimed at understanding and addressing political polarization in the United States.

Larsen, who also directs William & Mary Law School's Institute of Bill of Rights Law, will use the fellowship to complete a book with co-author Neal Devins titled, "How the Courts Can Save Themselves." Drawing on extensive judicial interviews and empirical research, the book asks a question with growing urgency: can the lower federal courts leverage internal judicial norms to combat partisan polarization and protect the rule of law?

"We are currently witnessing an erosion of public trust in the federal judiciary due to partisan polarization and perceived partisan influence on judicial decisions," Larsen said. "In writing this book, I seek to be constructive but not naïve; we focus on the unique features and norms of lower courts and explore how those dynamics can be leveraged to protect the rule of law from increasing political polarization."

Rather than prescribing reforms imposed from outside the judiciary, Larsen and Devins argue that meaningful change must be judge-led - aimed at bolstering internal court cohesion while foregoing external celebrity.

Larsen earned her B.A. from William & Mary and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she graduated first in her class. She clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court before joining the W&M faculty in 2010.

Her scholarship on constitutional law and legal institutions has been published in the nation's top law reviews, cited by seven U.S. Courts of Appeals, and featured in national media. She has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and appeared on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert to discuss her work on Supreme Court amicus briefs. Larsen has received numerous awards for her teaching and scholarship, including the state-wide Outstanding Faculty Award in the "Rising Star" category. In 2025, she was elected to the American Law Institute.

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program was established by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 2015 and has supported more than 270 scholars across disciplines. Learn more about the 2026 class and the full fellowship at carnegie.org.

W&M Law School staff

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