Jennifer K. Robbennolt
Associate Dean for Research
Alice Curtis Campbell Professor of Law and
Professor of Psychology
Co-Director, Illinois Program on Law, Behavior and Social Science
About
Professor Jennifer Robbennolt is an expert in the areas of psychology and law, torts, and dispute resolution. Her research integrates psychology into the study of law and legal institutions, focusing primarily on legal decision-making and the use of empirical research methodology in law.
Professor Robbennolt is co-author of several books, including The Psychology of Tort Law; Psychology for Lawyers: Understanding the Human Factors in Negotiation, Litigation, and Decision Making; a textbook on Empirical Methods in Law (with Illinois colleagues Robert M. Lawless and Thomas S. Ulen); and the influential casebook, Dispute Resolution and Lawyers.
She has served as the chair of the AALS section on law and the social sciences and as the secretary of the American Psychology-Law Society. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Law and Society Review and as is on the editorial boards of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law and Law and Human Behavior.
Professor Robbennolt has twice been awarded the Wayne R. LaFave Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship and the Shook, Hardy, & Bacon Excellence in Research Award, and has received the Mangano Dispute Resolution Advancement Award (with Illinois colleague Verity Winship) and the Professional Article Prize awarded by the CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. Her teaching has been recognized by the American Psychology-Law Society’s award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring in the Field of Psychology and Law, the Illinois Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching, the John E. Cribbet Excellence in Teaching Award, the Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award for outstanding teaching, and the Gold Chalk Award for dedication and service to the advancement of graduate student education.
A graduate with highest honors of the University of Nebraska College of Law, she also earned master’s and doctoral degrees in social psychology from the University of Nebraska. In 2016 she was presented with the inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Nebraska Law-Psychology Program. Before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois, Professor Robbennolt was associate dean for faculty research and development, associate professor, and senior fellow in the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. She has also served as a research associate and lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and at Princeton University’s Department of Psychology and as a law clerk to the Honorable John M. Gerrard of the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Education
MA, PhD University of Nebraska
JD University of Nebraska College of Law
BS Willamette University
Areas of Expertise
Legal Decision Making
Psychology and Law
Tort Law
Dispute Resolution
Courses
Dispute Resolution
Empirical Methods in Law
Torts
Selected Publications
Books
The Psychology of Tort Law (NYU Press, 2016) (with Valerie P. Hans).
Psychology for Lawyers: Understanding the Human Factors in Negotiation, Litigation, and Decision Making (ABA Publishing, 2nd ed. 2021) (with Jean Sternlight).
Empirical Methods in Law (Aspen, 2d ed., 2016) (with Robert M. Lawless & Thomas S. Ulen).
Dispute Resolution for Lawyers (West, 6th ed. 2019) (with Leonard L. Riskin, Chris Guthrie, Richard Reuben & Nancy Welsh).
Articles and Essays
Settlement Schemas: How Laypeople Understand Civil Settlement, 20 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 488 (2023) (with Jessica Bregant and Verity Winship).
Perceptions of Settlement, 27 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 93 (2021) (with Jessica Bregant & Verity Winship).
#MeToo, Time’s Up, and Theories of Justice, 2019 Illinois L. Rev. 45 (with Lesley Wexler & Colleen Murphy).
An Empirical Study of Admissions in SEC Settlements, 60 Arizona L. Rev. 1 (2018) (with Verity Winship).
Admissions of Guilt in Civil Enforcement, 102 Minn. L. Rev. 1077 (2018) (with Verity Winship).
Designing Amends for Lawful Civilian Casualties, 42 Yale J. Int’l L. __ 121 (2017) (with Lesley Wexler).
Behavioral Ethics Meets Legal Ethics, 11 Ann. Rev. L. & Soc. Sci. 75 (2015).
Bankrupt Apologies, 10 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 771 (2013) (with Robert Lawless).
Behavioral Legal Ethics, 45 Ariz. St. L.J. 1107 (2013) (with Jean Sternlight).
The Effects of Negotiated and Delegated Apologies in Settlement Negotiation, 37 Law & Hum. Behav. 128 (2013).
Attorneys, Apologies, and Settlement Negotiation, 13 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 349 (2008).
Apologies and Settlement Levers, 3 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 333 (2006).
Evaluating Juries by Comparison to Judges: A Benchmark for Judging? 32 Fla. St. L. Rev. 469 (2005).
Apologies and Legal Settlement: An Empirical Examination, 102 Mich. L. Rev. 460 (2003).
Symbolism and Incommensurability in Civil Sanctioning: Legal Decision-Makers as Goal Managers, 68 Brook. L. Rev. 1121 (2003) (with John M. Darley & Robert J. MacCoun).
Determining Punitive Damages: Empirical Insights and Implications for Reform, 50 Buffalo L. Rev. 103 (2002).
Punitive Damage Decision Making: The Decisions of Citizens and Trial Court Judges, 26 Law & Hum. Behav. 315 (2002).
Outcome Severity and Judgments of “Responsibility”: A Meta-Analytic Review, 30 J. Applied Soc. Psychol. 2575 (2000).
Anchoring in the Courtroom: The Effects of Caps on Punitive Damages, 23 Law & Hum. Behav. 353 (1999) (with Christina A. Studebaker).
See All Publications
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