Dean Chris Guthrie has promoted Lisa Bressman, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, to the role of Vice Dean of Vanderbilt Law School, effective for the 2024-25 academic year.
“Lisa shines as a scholar, teacher, and administrator,” said Guthrie, “and her contributions in each area have elevated the Law School throughout the 21st century. It’s fitting that she become the first Vice Dean in the history of the school.”
Bressman joined the Vanderbilt Law Faculty in 1998 after working in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice and serving as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge José A. Cabranes. An influential scholar in administrative law and statutory interpretation, her work has been cited by the Supreme Court on multiple occasions. She has co-authored, with Vanderbilt colleagues Edward Rubin and Kevin Stack, The Regulatory State, a course book designed to teach statutes and regulations to students, particularly in the first year of law school. 
A 3-time recipient of the Hall-Hartman award outstanding teaching, Bressman teaches Regulatory State, Life of the Law, and the Legal Scholarship Seminar, among other courses.
As Vice Dean, Bressman is responsible for a range of academic and administrative matters, including the planning of the law school curriculum; oversight of the Legal Research & Writing Program, the Master of Legal Studies Program, and the Undergraduate Minor in Legal Studies; and managing routine faculty personnel processes.
She served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs from 2010 to 2016 before beginning a second term in 2021. She also served as co-director of Vanderbilt’s Regulatory Program from 2006-2010. Bressman earned a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Wellesley College.
