Kerry Abrams

Abrams grew up in Edmonds, Washington, with a schoolteacher mother and engineer father. She attended Swarthmore College, graduating with a B.A. in English with highest honors in 1993.{{Cite news|date=2005-05-15|title=Kerry Abrams and Brandon Garrett (Published 2005)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/fashion/weddings/kerry-abrams-and-brandon-garrett.html|access-date=2020-11-18|issn=0362-4331}} Prior to attending Stanford Law School, she worked as an assistant at St. Martin's Press, a church organist, a secretary, and a department store clerk.{{Cite journal|date=2018|title=Kerry Abrams|url=https://web.law.duke.edu/news/pdf/lawmagsummer18.pdf|journal=Duke Law Magazine|pages=51–60}} During law school, she served as president of the Moot Court Board and the co-chair of Women of Stanford Law. She also worked as a research assistant for Professor Janet Halley.{{Cite book|last=Halley|first=Janet|title=Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2006|isbn=9780691127378|pages=xiii}} Abrams earned a J.D. at Stanford in 1998, in a graduating class that included other future law school deans Gillian Lester (Columbia) and Kimberly Yuracko (formerly dean at Northwestern).{{Cite web|last1=April 26|first1=Karen Sloan {{!}}|last2=PM|first2=2018 at 02:47|title=Stanford Class of 1998 Has Magic Formula for Producing Top Female Law Deans|url=https://www.law.com/therecorder/2018/04/26/stanford-class-of-1998-has-magic-formula-for-producing-top-women-law-deans/|access-date=2020-11-15|website=The Recorder|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Women Leaders in Academia|url=https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer/articles/women-leaders-in-academia/|access-date=2020-11-15|website=Stanford Law School|date=22 November 2019 |language=en}}

Following law school, Abrams served as a law clerk for Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She practiced as a commercial litigator for several years at the New York City law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP.{{Cite book|last=Association of American Law Schools|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.aals/aalsdlt2011&i=305|title=AALS Directory of Law Teachers|year=2011–2012|pages=305}} Her law practice experience included pro bono work in a lawsuit against the Leben Home for Adults in Queens, New York, for providing unnecessary surgeries to mentally ill residents of the home.{{Cite news|last=Levy|first=Clifford J.|date=2002-04-30|title=Voiceless, Defenseless And a Source of Cash (Published 2002)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/30/nyregion/voiceless-defenseless-and-a-source-of-cash.html|access-date=2020-11-15|issn=0362-4331}} The case received national attention and eventually settled for $7 million.{{Cite news|last=Levy|first=Clifford J.|date=2004-08-05|title=Queens Home For Mentally Ill Settles Lawsuit For $7 Million (Published 2004)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/nyregion/queens-home-for-mentally-ill-settles-lawsuit-for-7-million.html|access-date=2020-11-15|issn=0362-4331}}

Abrams served as acting assistant professor of lawyering at New York University School of Law from 2002 to 2005. She then joined the faculty of the University of Virginia Law School in 2005, working as a professor and later as the University's Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.{{Cite web|date=2005-08-21|title=New Faculty Join Law School|url=https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/2005_fall/newfaculty.htm|access-date=2020-11-15|website=University of Virginia School of Law|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2018-02-02|title=Vice Provost, Professor Kerry Abrams To Lead Duke Law School|url=https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/201802/vice-provost-professor-kerry-abrams-lead-duke-law-school|access-date=2020-11-15|website=University of Virginia School of Law|language=en}} Abrams became the fifteenth Dean of Duke Law School in July 2018.{{Cite web|last=Duke Law School|title=Law School Deans {{!}} Duke University School of Law|url=https://web.law.duke.edu/history/deans/|access-date=2020-11-15|website=web.law.duke.edu|language=en}}

Abrams's scholarship focuses on the areas of immigration law and citizenship, family law, and gender and law.{{Cite journal|date=2014|title=Kerry Abrams: Investigating the Intersection of Immigration and Family Law|url=https://www.law.virginia.edu/system/files/faculty/vajournal/abrams.pdf|journal=Virginia Journal|volume=17|pages=10–34}} U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor cited a 2013 article by Abrams in her dissenting opinion in Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett.{{Cite web|title=Mut. Pharma. Co. v. Bartlett, 570 U.S. 472 (2013)|url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/570/472/|access-date=2020-11-15|website=Justia Law|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=PrawfsBlawg: Kerry Abrams: Cited in the Supreme Court|url=https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2013/07/kerry-abrams-cited-in-the-supreme-court.html|access-date=2020-11-15|website=prawfsblawg.blogs.com}}

• "[https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/womenandlaw/1/ Family, Gender, and Leadership in the Legal Profession]," in [https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/womenandlaw Women & Law] 1-17 (2020) (joint publication of the top sixteen law reviews)
• "[http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/djglp/vol27/iss1/2 Gender Journals and Gender Equality: Reflections on Twenty-five Years of the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy]," 27 Duke Gender Journal of Law and Policy iii-vii (2020)
• "[http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3804 The Rights of Marriage: Obergefell, Din, and the Future of Constitutional Family Law]," 103 Cornell Law Review 501-564 (2018)
• "[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-92719-0_24 No More Blood]," in [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-92719-0 Debating Transformations of National Citizenship] 121-125 (Rainer Bauböck, ed., 2018)
• "[http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3807 Family Reunification and the Security State]," 42 Constitutional Commentary 247-280 (2017)
• "[https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3811/ Immigration’s Family Values]" (with R. Kent Piacenti), 100 Virginia Law Review 629-709 (2014)
• "[https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3811/ Plenary Power Preemption]," 99 Virginia Law Review 601-640 (2013)
• "[https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3816/ What Makes the Family Special?]" 80 University of Chicago Law Review 7-28 (2013)
• "[https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3818/ Marriage Fraud]," 100 California Law Review 1-67 (2012)
• "[https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3821/ The Hidden Dimension of Nineteenth-Century Immigration Law]," 62 Vanderbilt Law Review 1353-1418 (2009)
• "[http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3823 Immigration Law and the Regulation of Marriage]," 91 Minnesota Law Review 1625-1709 (2007)
• "[http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3826 Polygamy, Prostitution, and the Federalization of Immigration Law]," 105 Columbia Law Review 641-716 (2005)

Abrams is married to Brandon L. Garrett, L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law at Duke Law. They have two children.

• [https://law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/kerryabramscv.aug2018.pdf Curriculum Vitae] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202114303/https://law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/kerryabramscv.aug2018.pdf |date=2019-02-02 }}

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Category:Living people

Category:New York (state) lawyers

Category:New York University School of Law faculty

Category:Stanford Law School alumni

Category:20th-century American lawyers

Category:1971 births

Category:Swarthmore College alumni

Category:Duke University School of Law faculty

Category:University of Virginia School of Law faculty

Category:21st-century American lawyers

Category:Deans of law schools in the United States