Joanna Shepard

Professor Joanna Shepherd brings together training in Economics and Statistics with a deep understanding of many areas of law and litigation. Originally trained as an empirical Economist, Professor Shepherd earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Emory University with concentrations in Econometrics/Statistics, Law & Economics, and Industrial Organization. After working for the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank on the Macroeconomic Research Team, Professor Shepherd began her academic career as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Clemson University. In 2004, she joined the faculty at Emory University School of Law. She is currently an Associate Professor with tenure at Emory Law where she teaches Torts, Law and Economics, Analytical Methods for Lawyers, and Statistics for Lawyers. In addition, she occasionally teaches economics and statistics courses for the Emory Department of Economics, and serves as a statistical expert on various committees within the university.

Professor Shepherd’s research focuses on empirical analyses of legal changes and legal institutions. She has published broadly in law reviews, legal journals, and economics journals. Her recent research has empirically examined the consequences of various reforms to tort law, employment law, corporate law, and judicial elections. She is also an author of an Industrial Organization textbook. Her research has been discussed on CNN Sunday, National Fox News, and The O’Reilly Factor, as well as in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Professor Shepherd has served as a statistical expert on several legal cases. Her consulting experience includes expert reports and testimony in cases involving employment discrimination, damage computations, healthcare law, and competition policy. In addition, she has been invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and before the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Shepherd has also been invited to present her scholarly work by faculties at leading universities around the country including Stanford Law School, The University of Chicago Law School, NYU School of Law, The University of Michigan School of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, Duke Law School, Georgetown School of Law, The University of Southern California School of Law, and The University of Texas School of Law.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
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Testimony and expert reports in numerous cases including

• Employment discrimination cases involving discrimination in hiring, compensation, and promotion policies.

• Damage computations, including lost profit damages, event studies to evaluate wealth effects in corporate litigation, lost future earnings in personal injury cases, and reputational losses.

• Competition policy cases involving anticompetitive pricing and marketing, litigation for anticompetitive ends, and estimation of market demand.

• Healthcare cases involving employer-provided health insurance and the impacts of federal health regulation.

• Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee; Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, 108th Cong.: Hearing on H.R. 2934, The Terrorist Penalties Enhancement Act of 2003

• Testimony before the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Empirical Evidence on Criminal Deterrence. 

• Invited presentation at the Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, Benefits of Tort Reform. 

• Invited presentation at the Liability Project Conference at the American Enterprise Institute, Benefits of Tort Reform.

• Invited Presentation before the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, The Business of Judicial Elections.

ARTICLES
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• The Partisan Price of Justice: An Empirical Analysis of Campaign Contributions and Judicial Decisions, 86 New York University Law Review 101 (2011)

• Lawyers, Ignorance, and the Dominance of Delaware Corporate Law, Harvard Business Law Review 

• Baseball’s Accidental Racism: The Draft, African-American Players, and the Law, Connecticut Law Review

• Are Appointed Judges Strategic Too? 58 Duke Law Journal 1589 (2009).

• Money, Politics, and Impartial Justice, 58 Duke Law Journal 623 (2009). 

• The Influence of Retention Politics on Judges’ Voting, 38 The Journal of Legal Studies 169(2009).

• The Partisan Price of Justice: An Empirical Analysis of Campaign Contributions and Judicial Decisions, 86 New York University Law Review 101 (2011)

• What Else Matters for Corporate Governance?: The Case of Bank Monitoring, 88 Boston University Law Review 991 (2008).

• Tort Reform’s Winners and Losers: The Competing Effects of Care and Activity Levels, 55 UCLA Law Review 905 (2008).

• The Demographics of Tort Reform, 4 The Review of Law & Economics 591 (2008).

• Tort Reform and Accidental Deaths, 50 The Journal of Law & Economics 221 (2007). 

• Public Choice and the Law, in The Elgar Companion to Public Choice (Michael Reksulak, Lauralliam F. Shughart II eds., 2011)

• Judicial Opposition as Politics, 166 Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 88 (2010).

• Delaware Corporate Law: Failing Law, Failing Markets, in The Law and Economics of Corporate Governance: Changing Perspectives (Alessio M. Pacces, ed., 2010)

• Antitrust and Market Dominance, 46 The Antitrust Bulletin 835 (2002).

ARTICLES
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• The Economics of Industrial Organization (2003).