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Elected Member

Professor
Ifeoma
Ajunwa

Location
Atlanta, GA, USA
Affiliation
Emory University School of Law
Education
University of California, Davis
Columbia University, Ph.D.
Yale Law School, LLM

Professor Ifeoma Ajunwa, J.D., Ph.D., is an award-winning tenured law professor and author of the highly acclaimed book, The Quantified Worker, published by Cambridge University Press. At Emory, she is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law and Founding Director of the AI and Future of Work Program. She is also the Associate Dean for Projects and Partnerships at Emory Law. Professor Ajunwa was recruited from the University of North Carolina School of Law where she was a tenured law professor and the Founding Director of the Artificial Intelligence Decision-Making Research (AI-DR) Program. Professor Ajunwa is Senior COrresponding Fellow at Yale Law Center for Private Law, and an Affiliate Fellow of Yale Law School’s Information Society Project (ISP). She has been a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University since 2017. She was a 2019 recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and a 2018 recipient of the Derrick A. Bell Award from the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Dr. Ajunwa’s research interests are at the intersection of law and technology with a particular focus on the ethical governance, privacy, and discrimination issues associated with workplace AI and automated decision-making technologies. She also has an interest in the generative power of art for law with a focus on law and literature and law and film.

Professor Ajunwa has published both law review and peer review articles. Her publications in flagship law review journals include the California Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, Fordham Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, and Northwestern Law Review, as well as top law journals for specialty areas including the top journal in law and technology (the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology), anti-discrimination law (Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review), and employment and labor law (Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law). Her peer review publications have been in the American Journal of Law and Equality, Organizational Theory, Research in the Sociology of Work, Journal of Law, Medicine, and Society, Big Data and Society. She published a book, The Quantified Worker, with Cambridge University Press in 2023. Along with Dr. Jeremias Adams-Prassl of Oxford University Law School, she has a second book, The Oxford Handbook on Algorithmic Governance and the Law forthcoming in 2025.

Professor Ajunwa is an engaged public intellectual with an extensive list of bylines. She was a columnist at Forbes and has published op-eds in the New York Times, Nature, Washington PostHarvard Business ReviewWiredSlate and The Atlantic, among others. She is also a contributor to Jotwell and the Law and Political Economy (LPE) blog. Her research and legal commentary have been featured by media outlets such as National Public Radio (NPR), the Wall Street JournalCNNthe Guardian, and the BBC. She has testified before Congress (the US House Committee on Education and Labor), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and has also spoken before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Professor Ajunwa is a Founding Board Member of the Labor Tech Research Network which is an international group of scholars committed to the research of the ethics of AI used in the workplace and for labor. She is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and has consulted or served as advisory board member for Fortune 500 tech companies.

Member News

Traynor on Liberty, Law, and Democracy

In his essay "Liberty, Law, and Democracy: Are There Grounds for Realistic Optimism?" Michael Traynor, former President of The American Law Institute, reflects on the challenges facing American democracy amid political polarization and institutional strain. He examines threats to the balance between liberty and law, citing dysfunction across the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, while drawing on historical context and recent scholarship to frame these concerns.

Despite his sober assessment, Traynor maintains a guarded optimism rooted in America’s resilience, civic traditions, and individual potential to effect change. He highlights positive actions within the legal community, nonprofit organizations, and among engaged citizens, while outlining five practical steps Americans can take to strengthen democracy: improving civic education, demanding accountability, fostering open debate, participating in elections and local governance, and resisting simplistic solutions.

Traynor concludes that democracy is “stubborn work,” incremental, imperfect, and ongoing, but expresses confidence that Americans have the resolve to preserve it.

Read the full article The New Nationalist

Michael Traynor is senior counsel at Cobalt LLP in Berkeley California. He served as ALI President from 2000 to 2008, and as Chair of the Council from 2008 to 2011. He is also a recipient of ALI's Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Traynor is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.   He received the John P. Frank Outstanding Lawyer Award from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is an honorary life trustee of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and of Earthjustice and a past President (1973) of the Bar Association of San Francisco.