Lisa Grow Sun
Associate Professor of Law

JRCB 540
(801) 422-7434
sunl@law.byu.edu

Education

J.D., Harvard Law School, summa cum laude
B.S., Chemistry, University of Utah, summa cum laude

Academic Honors

Harvard Law School Fay Diploma (awarded to top graduate)
Harvard Law School Sears Prize (awarded to top two students in class)

Clerkships

The Honorable Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, United States Supreme Court
The Honorable Judge J. Michael Luttig, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Background

Professor Sun was the first woman to graduate first in her class from Harvard Law School, the first woman to graduate summa cum laude, and the first student to graduate summa cum laude in 15 years.

She was the Notes Chair of the Harvard Law Review, a Senior Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.

Experience

After clerking for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and then for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Professor Sun was a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where she taught Federal Jurisdiction and Administrative Law. Professor Sun then spent two years in Beijing, China, where she taught Civil Procedure to Chinese judges, lawyers, and administrative officials as a Visiting Professor at the Temple/Tsinghua University Masters in Law Program. While in China, Professor Sun also served as an advisor and consultant to the Peking University Law Review and the Tsinghua University Law Review, the first two student-run law reviews in China.

Professor Sun has also worked as a consultant for law firms on appellate briefs and Supreme Court petitions for certiorari, and has served as a pro bono lawyer on constitutional, administrative, bankruptcy, and family law matters.

Teaching and Scholarship

Professor Sun teaches Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Federal Jurisdiction, Disaster Law, and Torts. Her primary research interest is in the emerging field of Disaster Law. She is currently exploring the interaction between public and private disaster preparation and response and the ways that government incentives can ensure that private owners of critical infrastructure invest appropriately in disaster preparation.