Emory Law Faculty Named Among Top 50 Legal Innovators in Academia
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026
Three Emory University School of Law faculty members have been named among the 2026 Top 50 Legal Innovators in Academia by The National Law Review and Wickard, a national recognition honoring educators, researchers, and academic leaders shaping the future of legal education. The three professors are Ifeoma Ajunwa, Nicole Morris, and Matthew Sag.
Through their teaching and leadership in Emory Law’s new AI and the Law concentration, Ajunwa, Morris, and Sag are currently working to translate the rapidly developing field into the classroom.
Together, their recognition reflects Emory Law’s growing leadership in preparing students—and helping shape the law—for a world being transformed by artificial intelligence and technological change.
- Ifeoma Ajunwa, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law and founding director of the AI and the Future of Work Program, leads the law school's first initiative devoted to AI training, experiential student learning, and interdisciplinary research on the use of AI across workplaces, businesses, and the professions. Ajunwa's scholarship has supplied a foundational framework for understanding algorithmic hiring, automated worker evaluation, workplace surveillance, privacy, discrimination, and the increasing quantification of employees.
- Nicole Morris, director of the IP & Innovation Clinic and TI:GER® Program, was recognized for helping position Emory Law at the intersection of law, technology, and innovation Through TI:GER®, she leads an innovative experiential program in which law students work directly with scientists and technology innovators, including researchers at Department of Energy National Laboratories, to evaluate emerging technologies and develop commercialization and licensing strategies, giving students hands-on experience translating technological innovation into real-world legal and business solutions.
- Matthew Sag, Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science, was recognized for his influential work at the intersection of copyright, artificial intelligence, and emerging technology. Sag is a leading authority on copyright’s fair use doctrine. His scholarship on “non-expressive use” has helped shape thinking about the lawful use of copyrighted works in computational research, machine learning, and AI. He is also a leading commentator on how AI is impacting legal practice and legal education.
