L. Song Richardson
Professor L. Song Richardson, former UC Irvine School of Law Dean from 2018-2021, is Chancellor’s Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law. An award-winning educator and scholar, Prof. Richardson has been recognized for her transformational leadership in higher education. Her plans upon her return include launching an innovative institute, focused on issues of equity, opportunity, and leadership.
Prof. Richardson’s trailblazing career has been one of many firsts. She returns to UC Irvine after serving as the 14th president of Colorado College, making history as the first woman of color to hold the presidency. Previously, at the time of her appointment as the Law School’s second dean, Prof. Richardson was the only woman of color to lead a top-30 law school. She previously served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools, on the board of the Council of Independent Colleges, and as chair of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference’s Presidents Council. She is currently on the board of Citizens and Scholars, and serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s consensus study committee titled “Advancing the Field of Forensic Pathology: Lessons Learned from Death in Custody Investigations.” She is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Prof. Richardson’s impactful leadership has earned her widespread recognition, including the Association of American Law Schools’ Derrick Bell Award, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award, GlobalMindED’s Inclusive Leader Award for Higher Education, and the Council of Korean Americans’ Empower Award. The Thurgood Marshall Bar Association in Orange County established the L. Song Richardson Legacy Award to honor individuals who make extraordinary impacts in the legal community. Prior to joining Colorado College as president, Prof. Richardson was named one of the Top Women Lawyers in California by The Daily Journal, one of the 100 Most Influential business and opinion shapers in Orange County, and one of the two most influential Korean Americans in Orange County.
An interdisciplinary scholar, Prof. Richardson teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, and law and social science. Her scholarship applies cognitive and social psychology concepts to criminal law, criminal procedure, and policing. She has consulted widely on issues of implicit bias, race, and policing, working with various public and private entities to address racial and gender disparities. Her scholarship has been published by law journals at Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Cornell, Duke, and Northwestern, among others.
Before joining UC Irvine in 2014, Prof. Richardson held law professorships at DePaul University, American University, and the University of Iowa. In addition, she was a partner at a boutique criminal law firm, worked as a state and federal public defender in Seattle, and served as an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Prof. Richardson received a J.D. from Yale Law School and an A.B. from Harvard College. She is a classically trained pianist who performed twice with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.