Emily Ryo is the Charles L. B. Lowndes Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at Duke Law School. She was previously a professor of law and sociology at University of Southern California Gould School of Law, and prior to that, a research fellow at Stanford Law School. She received a JD from Harvard Law School and a PhD in Sociology from Stanford University. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced law at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton.

Professor Ryo’s current research focuses on immigration, criminal justice, legal attitudes and legal noncompliance, and access to justice. She approaches these issues through innovative interdisciplinary lenses, using diverse quantitative and qualitative methods. As an empirical legal scholar, she has published widely in both leading sociology and law journals. Her article with Ian Peacock, “A Study of Pandemic and Stigma Effects in Removal Proceedings,” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 19(3): 560-593, received the 2023 Article Prize from the Law and Society Association.