Anne Joseph O'Connell

Professor O'Connell has already established herself as a leading scholar of U.S. administrative law. She combines a lawyer's doctrinal acumen and institutional sensibilities with a political scientist's deep understanding of American politics and political theory and an empiricist's rigor about facts in the world. Professor O'Connell's scholarship explains how government really works. She has done pioneering and award-winning work on previously unforeseen questions about the problem of vacancies in federal office and about the legal and normative implications of unorthodox government entities such as the U.S. Postal Service or Smithsonian. Professor O'Connell's work combines creativity, rigor, intellectual integrity, and relevance.