Professor Laura T. Kessler is the S.J. Quinney Professor of Law at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on the regulation of sex, sexuality, and gender at the intersections of family law and reproductive rights and justice. Kessler was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar fellowship for her project Reproducing the State: Family Law and Religion in Israel, the U.S., and Beyond. Her research will explore strategies lawyers and citizens use to secure equal marriage, divorce, and reproductive rights amid religious claims on the family in both countries. The project is part of her broader interest in pragmatic, everyday resistance to laws perceived to be unjust, as well as the role of family law in constituting national identities. She holds law degrees from Columbia University (JSD and LLM) and the University of Maryland (JD) and a BA in Political Science from The George Washington University.

Kessler’s recent publications include:

Achieving Equality without a Constitution: Lessons From Israel for Queer Family Law, in Queer and Religious Alliances in Family Law Politics and Beyond (Nausica Palazzo & Jeffrey A. Redding eds., 2022).

Reproductive Justice at Work: Employment Law After Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 109 Cornell L. Rev. 1447 (2024).