At Stanford Law School, O’Connell teaches Administrative Law, Advanced Administrative Law, and Constitutional Law. The class of 2020 chose her to receive the Hurlbut Award, which is given to one professor “who strives to make teaching an art.” She co-chaired the steering committee for Stanford University’s Faculty Women’s Forum, which works to enable all women faculty to thrive, from August 2022 to January 2024 and jointly conducted two surveys on COVID’s impacts on faculty for FWF. Prior to joining Stanford University in 2018, O’Connell was the George Johnson Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. While there, she received the Distinguished Teaching Award (the campus’s most prestigious honor for teaching) in 2016 and Berkeley Law’s Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction in 2012. From April 2013 to July 2015, she served as associate dean for faculty development and research under three different deans. In 2013-2014, O’Connell was co-president of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies (co-organizing the 2014 Conference on Empirical Legal Studies).
Before joining the Berkeley Law faculty in 2004, O’Connell clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court during the October 2003 term. From 2001 to 2003, she was a trial attorney for the Federal Programs Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, receiving commendations for her work. She clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 2000 to 2001. A Truman Scholar, O’Connell worked for a number of federal agencies in earlier years, including the Department of Defense (Offices of the General Counsel and Inspector General), Federal Trade Commission (Bureau of Competition), Department of Justice (Office of Legal Counsel), and U.S. Army (RDE). She is a member of the New York bar and served as a volunteer for the Biden-Harris Campaign’s policy team.
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act and Implications for Presidential Transitions
Welcome & Luncheon Debate: Resolved: Employment Division v. Smith Should be Overruled
23rd Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
Welcome & Luncheon Debate: Resolved: Employment Division v. Smith Should be Overruled
Richard W. Garnett, Michael W. McConnell, Eugene B. Meyer, Lee Liberman Otis, Eugene Volokh
Welcome12:00 pm - 12:15pm Hon. Lee Liberman Otis, The Federalist Society Luncheon Debate: Resolved: Employment...
Deep Dive Episode 144 – United States v. Google: Examining the Historic Antitrust Case Against Big Tech
Geoffrey A. Manne, A. Douglas Melamed, Christopher L. Sagers, Brianna Hills Simopoulos
On October 20, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its much-anticipated lawsuit against Google....
United States v. Google: Examining the Historic Antitrust Case Against Big Tech
Brianna Hills Simopoulos, Geoffrey A. Manne, Nicholas Marr, A. Douglas Melamed, Christopher L. Sagers
On October 30, 2020, the Federalist Society's Corporations, Securities & Antitrust Practice Group and the...
United States v. Google: Examining the Historic Antitrust Case Against Big Tech
Corporations, Securities & Antitrust Practice Group and the Regulatory Transparency Project
TeleforumSupreme Court Preview: The 2020-21 Term
Jacksonville Lawyers Chapter - Online Event
Panel V: The Public and Private Realms: The Privatization Movement and Other Developments [Archive Collection]
Kenneth S. Abraham, Robert C. Ellickson, Leonard Liggio, George L. Priest
On October 16-17, 1987, the Federalist Society hosted a symposium in celebration of the bicentennial...
Panel V: The Public and Private Realms: The Privatization Movement and Other Developments [Archive Collection]
Kenneth S. Abraham, Robert C. Ellickson, Leonard Liggio, George L. Priest
On October 16-17, 1987, the Federalist Society hosted a symposium in celebration of the bicentennial...
Panel I: Methods of Interpreting the Economic Rights Provisions of the Constitution [Archive Collection]
Mark Kelman, Gary Lawson, Henry G. Manne, Roger Pilon, Mario J. Rizzo
On October 16-17, 1987, the Federalist Society hosted a symposium in celebration of the bicentennial...