Biography

An internationally renowned, prize-winning legal historian, Lawrence M. Friedman has for a generation been the leading expositor of the history of American law to a global audience of lawyers and lay people alike—and a leading figure in the law and society movement. He is particularly well known for treating legal history as a branch of general social history. From his award-winning History of American Law, first published in 1973, to his American Law in the 20th Century, published in 2003, his canonical works have become classic textbooks in legal and undergraduate education.

Professor Friedman is a prolific author on crime and punishment, and his numerous books have been translated into multiple languages. He is the recipient of six honorary law degrees and is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1968, he was a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and at Saint Louis University School of Law.

Professor Friedman has an appointment (by courtesy) with the Stanford University Department of History and the Department of Political Science.

Key Works

• Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3rd ed., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, American Law in the 20th Century, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. 722 pages.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History, in Violence in America: an Encyclopedia, Ronald Gottesman, editor-in-chief and Richard Maxwell Brown, consulting editor. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. (p.330-342)
• Lawrence M. Friedman, The Horizontal Society, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. 310 pages.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, The Legal System: A Social Science Perspective, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1975. (p. 338)

Courses & Programs

Courses

• History of American Law
• SPILS Law and Society Seminar

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Lawrence M. Friedman, The Roots of Justice, in Conducting Law and Society Research: Reflections on Methods and Practices, Simon Halliday and Patrick Schmidt, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, James Willard Hurst, in Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, Roger K. Newman, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, How Supreme a Court? (Book review: Lucas A. Powe Jr., The Supreme Court and the American Elite), American Prospect, April 14, 2009.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, Dead Hands: A Social History of Wills, Trusts, and Inheritance Law, Stanford, CA: Stanford Law Books, April 2009.
• Stanley N. Katz and Barbara A. Black, Lawrence M. Friedman, Michael Gagarin, David Ibbetson, Baber Johansen, Laura Kalman, Andrew Lewis, Klaus Luig, Geoffrey D. MacCormack, Werner Menski (area editors), Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2009.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, Some Thoughts About Citizen Lawyers, 50 William & Mary Law Review 1153 (March 2009).
• Lawrence M. Friedman, Benchmarks: Judges on Trial, Judicial Selection and Election, 58 DePaul Law Review 451 (Winter 2009).
• Lawrence M. Friedman, The Legal System, in Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation, Peter H. Schuck and James Q. Wilson, eds., New York: PublicAffairs, April 2008.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, The Litigation Revolution, in The Cambridge History of Law in America, Vol. III, Michael Grossberg and Christopher Tomlins, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Lawrence M. Friedman, Guarding Life's Dark Secrets: Legal and Social Controls Over Reputation, Propriety, and Privacy, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, November 2007.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Past President, American Society for Legal History
• Past President, Research Committee, Sociology of Law, International Sociological Association
• Past President, Law and Society Association

Honors and Awards

• Honorary LLD, University of Puget Sound, 1977; John Jay C., City University of New York, 1989; University of Lund, 1993; John Marshall Law School, 1995; University of Macerata (Italy), 1997
• Honorary D.Juris, University of Milan (Italy), 2006
• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Society of American Historians
• Recipient, Triennial Book Award of the Order of the Coif, 1976
• Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 1976
• Recipient, James Willard Hurst Prize, Law and Society Association, 1982
• Recipient, Harry Kalven Prize, for Distinguished Research on Law and Society, Law and Society Association, 1992
• Recipient, Silver Gavel Award of the American Bar Association, 1994
• Recipient, American Bar Foundation Research Award, 2001