Kathryn Spier, currently a tenured professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and School of Law, has accepted an offer to join the Harvard Law School faculty. Spier is an expert in law and economics, with a particular focus on liability, strategic contracting, and litigation strategy.
“Kathy Spier is an outstanding addition to our law and economics faculty, further strengthening an already extraordinary group of scholars,” said Dean Elena Kagan ’86. “Kathy’s research — such as her work on settlement behavior, fee-shifting rules, and other aspects of the civil justice system — is notable for its originality and rigor. And her teaching, as Harvard students discovered when she visited here, is simply exemplary. I am delighted she is bringing her enormous talents to Harvard Law School.”
Spier’s appointment is part of an ongoing effort to expand the full-time faculty at HLS. When she arrives to teach in the fall, Spier will be joined by Professor Noah Feldman of NYU, who also accepted a tenured offer this year. Including Spier and Feldman, over the past four academic years 16 full-time professors have joined the HLS faculty.
“I was on the faculty at Harvard 18 years ago, and those years were the most rewarding of my career,” said Spier. “I am thrilled to return to Harvard and excited about using my business school experience to contribute to the HLS curriculum.”
Spier began her academic career at Harvard University in the Department of Economics, where she was an associate professor. She continued on to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and then joined the Northwestern faculty. In the fall of 2005, Spier taught at HLS as a visiting professor.
Currently on the board of directors of The American Law and Economics Association, Spier is the author of several scholarly articles published in journals such as the American Economic Review, The Journal of Legal Studies, and the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. She is the associate editor of the RAND Journal of Economics, and sits on the editorial boards of several other publications.
A research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research, Spier is the recipient of several awards, including the Searle Fund Grant, the Garvin Price in Law and Economics, the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award from the Kellogg School of Management, and the Olin Fellowship.
Spier earned a B.A. summa cum laude in Mathematics and Economics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT.