Justin T. Sevier

Professor Sevier’s scholarship focuses on legal institutional design, where he identifies and examines the conditions under which the public willingly legitimizes legal rules, actors and tribunals. He explores his research questions primarily through psychology experiments in the law of evidence (studying both jury behavior and non-lawyers’ perceptions of trial outcomes), while also examining the role that popular legitimacy plays in shaping the law governing business torts and consumer behavior.

Before joining the Florida State law faculty in 2015, Professor Sevier was an associate research scholar at Yale Law School and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Law. His scholarship has been published both in law journals—including the Georgetown Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Minnesota Law Review, among others—and in peer-reviewed publications, including Psychology, Public Policy and Law. Professor Sevier serves frequently as an ad hoc referee for peer-reviewed journals at the intersection of social science and the legal system. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Law and Human Behavior and Law and Social Inquiry.

Professor Sevier practiced litigation at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, where he specialized in shareholder derivative actions and corporate governance matters. He also practiced litigation at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he focused on complex commercial torts. He is a member of the New York State Bar, holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), and holds a Master of Science and Master of Philosophy from Yale University. He clerked for Judge Carlos T. Bea, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Sevier has received numerous teaching accolades. He has three times received (and was the inaugural recipient of) the Law School's Open Door Faculty Teaching Award, which is awarded to one professor at the College of Law annually. He is also the recipient of a University Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, awarded to eight professors across the University, and the prestigious University Distinguished Teaching Award, which is awarded to one professor at Florida State University each year. He teaches courses on evidence, torts, closely-held businesses, behavioral law and economics, and the American jury.