Harvard Law School faculty members feature prominently on the Social Science Research Network’s latest list of the 50 most-cited law school faculty, according to the latest data from the research platform.
Founded in 1994, SSRN is one of the largest open-access research repositories in the world, hosting over 1.7 million papers and providing preprint access to new ideas in law, economics, medicine, and other social science disciplines.
As of the start of January 2026, nine Harvard Law School faculty members were featured in the top 50, making Harvard Law the school with the highest representation among faculty most cited. Among Harvard Law professors, Cass Sunstein ’78, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard, topped the list, followed by Lucian Bebchuk, James Barr Ames Professor of Law, Economics, and Finance; Steven Shavell, Samuel R. Rosenthal Professor of Law and Economics; and Alma Cohen, Professor of Empirical Practice.
Rounding out the law school’s representation in the top 50 were William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Jesse Fried; Louis Kaplow, Finn M. W. Caspersen and Household International Professor of Law and Economics; Allen Ferrell ’95, Harvey Greenfield Professor of Securities Law; Mark Roe ’80, David Berg Professor of Law; and Adrian Vermeule, Ralph S. Tyler Jr. Professor of Constitutional Law.
In addition to the high ranking of these nine scholars, Harvard Law also claims the highest number of active faculty featured among the top 50, followed by the University of Chicago Law School with six active faculty and UC Berkeley Law with five.
SSRN is the leading electronic service for social science research. As of early January 2026, its electronic library contained over 1,771,087 full-text documents by more than 2,541,941 authors.
To view the full list of top law school authors, visit the SSRN website.
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