Gillian Lester

Gillian Lester is Columbia Law School’s dean and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law there. She is a nationally recognized authority on employment law and policy whose research has explored workplace intellectual property law, public finance policy, and the design of social insurance laws and regulations. Lester is the author of numerous books and articles and is co-author of one of the leading casebooks on employment law, Employment Law Cases and Materials. She is also a member of the American Law Institute and was an adviser to the ALI Restatement of Employment Law.

Lester began her teaching career in 1994 at UCLA School of Law, becoming a full professor in 1999, and joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 2006. At Berkeley, she was the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law and Mimi Wolfen Research Professor, and also served as co-director of the Berkeley Center for Health, Economic & Family Security; associate dean for the J.D. program and curricular planning; and, most recently, acting dean, from 2012 to 2014.

Lester has held external appointments as the Sidley Austin Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and as Sloan Fellow and Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Lester also held short-term visiting appointments at University of Toronto Faculty of Law, USC Gould School of Law, University of Chicago Law School, and Radzyner School of Law Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Lester holds degrees from Stanford Law School and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia.