Professor Emily Hammond Named Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs


June 27, 2019

Photo of Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Emily Hammond

Glen Earl Weston Research Professor Emily Hammond will be senior associate dean of academic affairs at GW Law.

GW Law Interim Dean Christopher Bracey announced the appointment of Professor Emily Hammond as senior associate dean for academic affairs, effective July 1, 2019.

"Emily Hammond is a perfect addition to the Dean's Suite," Dean Bracey said. "She has made many significant contributions to our law school since joining GW Law five years ago and is exceedingly qualified to serve in this critical role. I look forward to working with her to move our academic program to new heights."

During her time at GW Law, Senior Associate Dean Hammond has taught courses in Administrative Law, Atomic Energy Law, Energy Law, Environmental Law, Oil & Gas Law, Risk, Public Policy & Law, Torts, and Water Law.

"It is a true honor to serve as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. I look forward to working with this extraordinary community to propel GW Law into the future," Senior Academic Dean Hammond said.

Prior to joining GW Law, she served on the faculties at Wake Forest University and the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where she served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Director of the Law Center and won numerous teaching awards. She has visited at the University of Texas, Florida State University, and the University of Georgia. Before entering academia, Senior Associate Dean Hammond practiced law with Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore in Atlanta, Georgia, and clerked for Judge Richard W. Story of the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

A nationally recognized expert in energy law, environmental law, and administrative law, Senior Associate Dean Hammond is a former environmental engineer. She brings technical fluency to cutting-edge issues at the intersection of law, science, and policy. 

Senior Associate Dean Hammond’s scholarship focuses on regulatory process, the responses of various legal institutions to scientific uncertainty, electricity markets, climate change, and the law of water quality. Her articles have appeared in numerous top-ranked journals, including the Columbia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, and the Vanderbilt Law Review. She is a co-author of one of the nation’s leading energy law texts, Energy, Economics and the Environment, and the environmental law text Environmental Protection: Law and Policy, in addition to a variety of book chapters and shorter works. She currently writes for SCOTUSblog following Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren, which considers the role of legislative motive in pre-emption analysis.

An elected member of the American Law Institute, Senior Associate Dean Hammond is also a past chair of the American Association of Law Schools’ Administrative Law Section and a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. She has consulted on various energy, environmental, and administrative law matters, authored amicus briefs, and testified before Congress on these issues. Senior Associate Dean Hammond actively collaborates with other researchers from a variety of disciplines within her field, and she is a past Distinguished Young Environmental Scholar recipient at the Stegner Center, University of Utah.

Senior Associate Dean Hammond holds a bachelor of science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University and a juris doctor from the University of Georgia.