Biography

Alena M. Allen served as Dean of the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center from July 2023 until September 2025 and continues to serve as a Professor of Law.

Allen previously held several leadership roles, including Deputy Director of the Association of American Law Schools and Interim Dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law. She also served as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development at Arkansas, and earlier in her career, she was a tenured faculty member at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and served as Director of Diversity, Director of Research, and was elected to the Faculty Senate.

Her scholarly work centers on health policy and tort law, with publications in the North Carolina Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, BYU Law Review, and Cardozo Law Review. She was recognized as an American Society of Medicine, Law, and Ethics Health Scholar at the Center for Health Law Studies at St. Louis University School of Law.

Throughout her career, Allen has earned distinctions for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service, including Professor of the Year (2013), the Farris Bobango Faculty Scholarship Award (2019), and the MLK 50 Faculty Service Award (2021).

Allen earned her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Loyola University New Orleans and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was Articles Editor of the Yale Journal of Regulation. She clerked for Judge Samuel H. Mays, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, and Judge Paulette J. Delk, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Before entering academia, Allen practiced law in the healthcare group at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., and in the employee benefits group at Baker Botts in Houston.

Selected Publications

Book chapters

Tort Norms in Context: Fostering Discussions about Gender and Racial Bias in Tort. In Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion & Equity in the Law School Classroom (Nicole P. Dyszlewski et. al. eds.), Carolina Press (2021).

On Robinson v. Cutchin. In Feminist Judgements: Rewritten Tort Opinions (Martha Chamallas & Lucinda Finley eds.), Cambridge University Press (2020).

Drugs General Requirements. In Food and Drug Law Regulation (David Adams, Richard Cooper, and Martin Hahn, eds.), The Food and Drug Law Institute (2008)

Articles

The Emotional Woman, 99 N.C. LAW REVIEW 1021 (2021).

Rape Messaging, 87 FORDHAM L. REV. 1033 (2018).

Dense Women, 76 OHIO ST. L.J. 847 (2015).

Regulating Health and Wealth, 35 CARDOZO L. REV. 309 (2013).

State Mandated Disability Insurance as Salve to the Consumer Bankruptcy Imbroglio, 2011 BYU L. REV. 1327 (2011).

Essay

Reflections on Existence as a Threat, Conn. L. Rev (2022).

Honors & Awards

University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys MLK 50 Faculty Service Award (2021).

LeMoyne-Owen College Lady of Distinction Service Award (2019).

University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys Farris Bobango Scholarship Award (2019).

Maxine smith Higher Education Administration Fellowship (2015).

Cecil C. Humphreys University of Memphis School of Law Professor of Year (2013).

American Society of Medicine, Law & Ethics/St. Louis University Health Scholar (2013).