Joy-Marie Lawrence

Penelope (Penny) Andrews is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at New York Law School where she teaches torts, professional responsibility and comparative law. She also serves as Co-Director of NYLS’s Racial Justice Project as well as Host of the South Africa Reading Group which she founded in 1994 with the late Professor Stephen Ellmann.

Professor Andrews was the 2018–19 Sabbatical Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Culture at Columbia Law School. She previously completed two terms as Dean there. She was also the first Black dean at the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law, and the first female dean of Albany Law School in New York. She was previously the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the City University of New York School of Law and Director of International Programs at Valparaiso Law School.   In June 2019 she commenced a two-year term as the President of the Law and Society Association.

Professor Andrews is an editor of the International Journal of Law in Context and sits on the Board of the Human Rights and the Global Economy E-Journal, East Africa Journal of Peace and Human Rights and the African Law E-Journal.   She has published several books and articles that focus on comparative constitutional law, gender and racial equality, human rights, the judiciary, and legal education. She also publishes regularly in the popular media and on social media.

Professor Andrews’s focus on the judiciary in South Africa seeks to bridge the divide between theory and practice. She has served as a trainer for the Judicial Institute for Africa, focusing on opinion writing and communications skills for new and experienced judges. She also served as an Acting Judge of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for the 2018 third term, presiding over criminal appeals, motion court, and civil trials. She has served as an arbitrator in hearings on racial discrimination in South Africa.