Sarah Seo, a legal historian of 20th century US criminal justice, will join the NYU Law faculty this summer, Dean Troy McKenzie ’00 announced on May 1. She is currently the Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches courses in criminal law and American legal history.
“Sarah is among the most original scholars working at the intersection of criminal law, criminal procedure, and legal history,” McKenzie said. “[She] brings to the field and classroom a distinctive voice and deep understanding of the constitutional and institutional structures that shape policing and public authority.”
Seo’s scholarship appears in leading law reviews and broader public forums. Her award-winning first book, Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom, has been recognized for its insightful analysis and contributions to legal history and cultural studies and was named one of Smithsonian Magazine’s 10 best history books of 2019. She is an active member of the American Society for Legal History, where she serves on the Board of Directors.
Seo is already familiar to many in the NYU Law community. This past fall, she was a visiting professor at the Law School, teaching Criminal Law to 1L students, and she was a Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in Legal History at NYU Law from 2014 to 2015.
Before joining the Columbia faculty in 2020, Seo taught at the University of Iowa College of Law. She began her legal career clerking for Judge Denny Chin, then of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Judge Reena Raggi of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Sarah holds a PhD and AB in history from Princeton University and a JD from Columbia Law School.
Posted May 5, 2025