Olatunde Johnson, JD
Olatunde Johnson is the Ruth Bader Ginsburg '59 Professor of Law at Columbia Law School where she teaches and writes about civil rights, civil procedure, administrative law, and democracy in the United States. In 2021, President Joseph R. Biden appointed Professor Johnson to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. In 2017, Johnson was elected a member of the American Law Institute. In 2016, she was doubly honored with the Law School's Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Columbia University's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Professor Johnson graduated with honors from Yale University and Stanford Law School. After law school, Professor Johnson clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court. Prior to entering academia, Professor Johnson served as constitutional and civil rights counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF).