Chris Guthrie

Biography

Chris Guthrie has served as Dean of Vanderbilt Law School since 2009. Dean Guthrie is a leading expert on behavioral law and economics, dispute resolution, negotiation, and judicial decision-making. Over the course of his academic career, he has been recognized for his research and teaching with two CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution Professional Article Prizes, the Outstanding First-Year Course Professor Award at Northwestern University Law School, and multiple teaching and research prizes at the University of Missouri, among other awards. He is one of the authors of the influential textbook Dispute Resolution and Lawyers and has published more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in leading law journals, including the University of Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

Guthrie joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2002 following six years on the faculty at the University of Missouri School of Law. He served as the law school’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2004-08 before becoming its Dean in July 2009. During his academic career, Guthrie has served as a visiting professor at the Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Washington University law schools. Before entering the legal academy, he practiced law with Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, California.

Guthrie graduated with distinction and honors from Stanford University and then earned his master’s in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a law degree from Stanford Law School. At Vanderbilt, Dean Guthrie has taught Torts, Negotiation, and Dispute Resolution.