Biography

Deborah R. Hensler's empirical research on dispute resolution, complex litigation, class actions and mass tort liability has won international recognition. A political scientist and public policy analyst who was the director of the RAND Corporation's Institute for Civil Justice before joining the Stanford Law School faculty, she has testified before state and federal legislatures on issues ranging from alternative dispute resolution to asbestos litigation and mass torts and consulted with judges and lawyers outside of the United States on the design of class action regimes. Professor Hensler is the organizer of the Stanford Globalization of Class Actions Exchange, which is spearheading international research on class actions and mass litigation, and the co-editor of the recently published volume The Globalization of Class Actions. She co-authored RAND's comprehensive 2002 report on the status of asbestos litigation in the United States and is the lead author of Class Action Dilemmas: Pursuing Public Goals For Private Gain. At Stanford she teaches seminars on complex litigation, the legal profession, and the use of policy analysis in the law and serves as associate dean of graduate studies. Professor Hensler is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She was the director of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation from 1998 to 2003. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1998, she was a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and held a variety of high-level positions at RAND where she was employed from 1973 to 2001. Professor Hensler is an associate research fellow of the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, has taught at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and has been awarded a visiting professorship to Tilburg University by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Key Works

• Deborah Hensler, Financing Civil Litigation: the US Perspective, in New Trends in Financing Civil Litigation in Europe, Mark Tuil and Louis Visscher, (Eds.), Cheltanham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2010.
• Deborah Hensler, Christopher Hodges & Magdalena Tulibacka, "The Globalization of Class Actions," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 622 (2009).
• Deborah Hensler, "Mass Torts," in David Clark ed. Encyclopedia of Law & Society: American and Global Perspectives (2007).
• Deborah R. Hensler, "Our Courts, Ourselves: How the Alternative Dispute Resolution Movement is Re-Shaping Our Legal System," 108 Penn State Law Review 165-197 (2003).
• Deborah R. Hensler, Nicholas M. Pace, Bonita Dombey-Moore, Beth Giddens, Jennifer Gross, and Erik K. Moller, Class Action Dilemmas: Pursuing Public Goals for Private Gain, Santa Monica: Rand Institute for Civil Justice (2000)

Courses & Programs

Courses

• JSD Research Colloquium
• Legal Profession Workshop: The Future of Large Law Firms
• SPILS Research Methods Workshop

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Deborah R. Hensler, The Future of Mass Litigation: Global Class Actions and Third-Party Litigation Funding, 79 George Washington Law Review 306 (2011)
• Deborah Hensler, Financing Civil Litigation: the US Perspective, in New Trends in Financing Civil Litigation in Europe, Mark Tuil and Louis Visscher, (Eds.), Cheltanham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2010.
• Deborah Hensler, Using Class Actions to Enforce Consumer Protection Law, Geraint Howells, Iain Ramsay, and Thomas Wilhelmsson, eds., in Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law, Edward Elgar, 2010.
• Deborah Hensler, Christopher Hodges & Magdalena Tulibacka, "The Globalization of Class Actions," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 622 (2009).
• Deborah R. Hensler, Jurors in the Material World: Putting Tort Verdicts in Their Social Context, 13 Roger Williams University Law Review 8 (Winter 2008).
• Deborah R. Hensler, Has the Fat Lady Sung? The Future of Mass Toxic Torts, 26 Review of Litigation 883 (2007).
• Deborah Hensler, "Mass Torts," in David Clark ed. Encyclopedia of Law & Society: American and Global Perspectives (2007).
• Deborah Hensler, A Brief History of Asbestor Litigation in the United States, 826 New Business Law 28 (2006). (translated into Japanese by Machiko Furuyama)
• Deborah Hensler, Bringing Shutts Into the Future: Rethinking Protection of Future Claimants in Mass Tort Class Actions, 74 UMKC Law Review 585 (2006).
• Deborah R. Hensler, Alternative Courts? Litigation-Induced Claims Resolution Facilities, 57 Stanford Law Review 1429 (2005).

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Member, Board of Overseers, Rand Institute of Civil Justice
• Member (1993-1999), Board of Directors, American Judicature Society
• Member (1997-2001), Board of Directors, American Inns of Court, Leadership Council

Honors and Awards

• Thorsten Sellin Fellow (2002-Present), American Academy of Political and Social Science
• Recipient, Robert McKay Award for Tort Scholarship, 2002