Erin O'Hara O'Connor

Erin O’Hara O’Connor has served as dean of the Florida State University College of Law since 2016, leading the College through a decade of significant growth, national recognition, and strategic innovation. Under her leadership, FSU Law has strengthened its reputation as one of the nation’s best values in legal education, expanded experiential learning opportunities, enhanced student success initiatives, and deepened engagement with alumni, the legal profession, and policymakers.

During her tenure, the College has launched new academic programs and centers, expanded interdisciplinary collaboration across the university, and increased opportunities for students to gain real-world experience through clinics, externships, and practical training. Dean O’Connor has also championed efforts to elevate the College’s national profile through faculty scholarship, strategic partnerships, and increased visibility in areas such as business and technology law, election law, and public interest advocacy.

A nationally recognized scholar, Dean O’Connor’s research focuses on conflict of laws, arbitration, behavioral law and economics, and the legal marketplace. Prior to joining Florida State in 2016, she was a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, where she served as director of the Law and Human Behavior program from 2007 to 2010, associate dean for academic affairs from 2008 to 2010, and director of graduate studies for the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics from 2011 to 2016.

Earlier in her academic career, she taught at the University of Chicago Law School and has also held teaching appointments at Clemson University, George Mason University, Georgetown University, and Northwestern University.

Dean O’Connor received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as a senior article's selection editor for the Georgetown Law Journal. Following law school, she clerked for Chief Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.