Law 2023: WENDY COLLINS PERDUE

“If you are not having fun,” says Perdue, “you are not doing it right.”

A longtime leader in legal education, Perdue joined the faculty of Georgetown University Law Center in 1982, ultimately becoming an associate dean. Since 2011, she has been the University of Richmond’s law dean and specializes in civil procedure, conflict of laws, land use and public health, and has been published in the Virginia Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Washington Law Review and the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, among others.

A graduate of Wellesley College and Duke University School of Law, Perdue clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy when he was a judge for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and she started as an associate at Washington, D.C., firm Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells) before entering academia. Over the years, Perdue has served on numerous professional boards, including as president of the Association of American Law Schools and the Virginia Bar Association’s board.

HOW I CHOSE MY CAREER: In college, I was glued to the Watergate hearings, and those convinced me that law and lawyers really mattered in the world.