Jennifer L. Mnookin is an American legal scholar and academic serving as chancellor of the
University of Wisconsin–Madison since 2022.[1] She previously served as dean of the
UCLA School of Law, where she was David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Professor of Law.[2] While at UCLA Law, she co-founded and co-directed the Program on Understanding Law, Science and Evidence.[3]
From 1998 to 2005, Mnookin was on the faculty of the
University of Virginia School of Law, with one year (2002-03) spent as a visiting professor at
Harvard Law School. She joined the faculty of UCLA Law in 2005, where she then served as vice dean for faculty and research from 2007–09, vice dean for external appointments and intellectual life from 2012–13, and dean from 2013-2022. On April 23, 2020, she was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[7] On May 16, 2022, the
University of Wisconsin SystemBoard of Regents announced they had unanimously chosen Mnookin to be the 30th chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She took office on August 4, 2022.[8]
Her scholarship focuses on the interconnections between evidence, science and technology, and legal and cultural ideas about proof and persuasion. She has written on topics ranging from the history of photographic evidence to the complexities of the
Confrontation Clause of the
Sixth Amendment with respect to expert evidence. She is a co-author of The New Wigmore, A Treatise on Evidence: Expert Evidence.[9] Much of her work has focused on the problems of forensic science evidence, especially pattern identification evidence like latent fingerprint identification.[6] She has frequently commented to the press on forensic science and evidence issues[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and has occasionally consulted or served as an expert witness on the scientific foundation of fingerprint evidence.[18]
In her role as a law school administrator, Mnookin is a former member of the steering committee of the
Association of American Law Schools' Dean's Forum. Mnookin was named a member of the
American Law Institute, a leading organization dedicated to improving and modernizing the law, in 2011.[26]
Personal life
Mnookin married Joshua Foa Dienstag,[27] a professor of political science and law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1996. They have two children, Sophia and Isaac.[28]
^
ab"BiographyPage". law.ucla.edu.
Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
^"New 2020 Members Announced". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. April 23, 2020.
Archived from the original on April 23, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
^Mnookin, Jennifer (February 19, 2009).
"Clueless 'science'". The Los Angeles Times.
Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2014.