Brandon Hasbrouck ’11L to Give Inaugural Provost’s Lecture Annual Provost’s Lecture celebrates W&L faculty for excellence in scholarship and teaching.

Communications & Public Affairs
August 28, 2023

Brandon Hasbrouck, associate professor of law and director of the Frances Lewis Law Center at Washington and Lee University, will give the inaugural Provost’s Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the Moot Courtroom in Sydney Lewis Hall.

Hasbrouck’s talk, titled “Prisons as Laboratories of Antidemocracy,” is free and open to the public. It is the first in a new annual Provost’s Lecture series that seeks to recognize and celebrate W&L faculty who demonstrate exemplary teaching and scholarship, as well as a deep commitment to the university and its mission.

“I am truly pleased Professor Brandon Hasbrouck will give the inaugural Provost’s Lecture,” said W&L Provost Lena Hill. “This new lecture series celebrates one faculty member each year whose research or creative work rises to the top of a scholarly or artistic field. We will also use this honor to recognize the faculty member’s outstanding teaching and academic citizenship.”

“We have a deep bench of brilliant scholars across all disciplines at W&L doing extraordinary work,” said Hasbrouck. “I am so fortunate to be part of such a vibrant intellectual community. In all my work, I try to imagine — and provide ideas towards building — a world that is braided in love, compassion, equality, and justice. To be recognized by Provost Hill for my scholarship, teaching, and service is the greatest professional achievement in my academic career.”

Hasbrouck received his J.D. degree in 2011 from the Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Washington and Lee Law Review and was a member of the Black Law Students Association. He was also the recipient of the Frederic L. Kirgis, Jr. International Law Award for Excellence in International Law, graduated Order of Coif, and was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa. He received his bachelor’s degree from Dominican College.

Hasbrouck is an accomplished scholar and teacher who writes in the areas of criminal law and procedure, constitutional law and theory, movement law, and abolition. His research explores the legal and constitutional principles available to Congress and the courts to redress the ways law fails Black and other marginalized people, along with the structural possibilities for radical change in American society.

His work has been published in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, New York University Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, The Georgetown Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Boston University Law Review, and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Additionally, Hasbrouck has authored or coauthored amicus briefs in federal court on some of the most important issues at the intersection of constitutional law and civil rights and habeas law. He is frequently consulted on litigation strategies involving civil rights and racial justice.

Hasbrouck, who joined the W&L Law faculty in 2019, is a three-time recipient of the Ethan Allen Faculty Fellowship for scholarly excellence and a two-time recipient of the John W. Elrod Law Alumni Fellowship for teaching excellence; he is the first professor to have received both awards in the same year. In addition, he was awarded the Lewis Prize for Excellence in Legal Scholarship in 2020 and 2021 and is the first Black professor to receive the W&L Student Bar Association’s Professor of the Year award.

Before joining the university, Hasbrouck worked at McGuireWoods LLP in Richmond, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York. He also clerked for two federal judges, Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and Judge Roger L. Gregory of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Law from Dominican College, and is admitted to the bar of New York State, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“Professor Hasbrouck is a brilliant scholar with an astonishingly impressive publication record who is passionate about the law and the lawyers and students he influences with his work,” said Melanie Wilson, Dean of the Law School and Roy L. Steinheimer, Jr., Professor of Law. “His dedication to teaching paired with his notable scholarship make him a perfect fit for this prestigious lecture.”

“Professor Hasbrouck’s publication record over the last year and a half — especially when considered alongside his dedication to students in the classroom and beyond — is nothing less than extraordinary,” said Hill. “We are fortunate to invite impressive speakers from around the country and the world to W&L, but I am most proud to hear from nationally and internationally renowned scholars of our own. I look forward to learning a great deal from Professor Hasbrouck’s lecture and to being inspired by his example of faculty excellence.”