Nora Freeman Engstrom

Nora Freeman Engstrom is the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. A nationally recognized authority on tort law, professional responsibility, and complex litigation, she also co-directs the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, the premier academic center seeking to make the civil justice system more transparent, accessible, and equitable. Beyond that, she is the author of numerous award-winning scholarly articles, the author or co-author of three casebooks, and a Reporter for two Third Restatement of Torts projects: Miscellaneous Provisions and Medical Malpractice. In 2022, the American Law Institute (ALI) awarded her the R. Ammi Cutter Reporter’s Chair for her work on the Restatement, one of the highest honors that organization bestows.

Professor Engstrom is an elected member of the ALI, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Editorial Board of Foundation Press, and, from 2023-2024, served as Chair of the Section on Torts and Compensation Systems of the AALS. She is also the 2025 recipient of the William L. Prosser Award, a lifetime achievement award furnished by AALS for her outstanding contributions to tort law.

Before joining Stanford’s faculty in 2009, Professor Engstrom was a litigator at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP. Before that, she was a law clerk to then-Judge Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She also worked at the Department of Justice where she focused on international terrorism and was awarded the Attorney General’s Award for Superior Service. She earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School, where she graduated with distinction and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She earned her B.A. from Dartmouth College, summa cum laude.