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Amy Laura Wax (born January 19, 1953) is an American lawyer, neurologist, and academic. She is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her work addresses issues in social welfare law and policy, as well as the relationship of the family, the workplace, and labor markets.

Early life and education

Wax was born and raised with her two sisters in a Jewish household in Troy, New York, where she attended public schools. Her parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe; her father worked in the garment industry, and her mother was a teacher and an administrator in the government in Albany, New York.

She attended and graduated from Yale University (B.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, summa cum laude, 1975). Wax then attended Oxford University (Marshall Scholar in Philosophy, Physiology, and Psychology, Somerville College, 1976). She next attended both Harvard Medical School (M.D. 1981) and Harvard Law School (first year of law school, 1981). She practiced medicine from 1982 to 1987, doing a residency in neurology at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, and working as a consulting neurologist at a clinic in the Bronx and for a medical group in Brooklyn. She completed her legal education at Columbia Law School (J.D. 1987; Editor of the Columbia Law Review), working part-time to put herself through law school.

Wax then clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1987 to 1988. Wax was admitted to the New York State bar in 1988.

Legal career

Wax first worked in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States of the United States Department of Justice from 1988 to 1994. During her tenure in the Office, she argued 15 cases before the United States Supreme Court. She taught at University of Virginia Law School from 1994 to 2000.

Wax is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, having joined the law school's faculty in 2001. She received both the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course, and the Harvey Levin Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2015, she received a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Her academic focus is on social welfare law and policy, and the relationship of the family, the workplace, and labor markets. Wax authored Race, Wrongs, and Remedies: Group Justice in the 21st Century (2009).

Controversies

Wax has been called "notorious for making controversial comments that have attracted national attention". In a controversial piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer she wrote: "all cultures are not equal". She told the Daily Pennsylvanian that "everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans" because of their "superior" mores. In an interview with Glenn Loury, she also claimed that "a black student has never finished in the top quarter of a graduating class Penn Law". As a result of these controversies, Penn Law School stripped Wax of her duties teaching curriculum courses first-year students. A petition to fire Wax gathered about 4,000 signatures.

References

1. ^ "C.V." (PDF). University of Pennsylvania Law School.
2. ^ "Our History: Former Faculty: Wax, Amy L. (1994-2001); Tenured faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law through its history.", University of Virginia Law School.
3. Nick Roll, "Outrage Over Op-Ed", Inside Higher Ed, August 25, 2017.
4. ^ "Q&A with Amy Wax". C-SPAN. June 5, 2018.
5. ^ "Penn Law Faculty: Amy Wax, expert on Civil Procedure, Social Welfare Law and Policy, Law and Economics, Family Law". University of Pennsylvania Law School.
6. Amy Wax. Martindale-Hubbell. 2019 – via Google Books. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
7. ^ "Prof. Amy Wax; Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School". The Federalist Society.
8. Amy Wax, Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School website.
9. "Amy L. Wax". National Review.
10. "Amy Wax recipient of Penn’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching"
11. Madeleine Ngo, Penn Law prof. Amy Wax on Brett Kavanaugh allegations, Daily Pennsylvanian, September 30, 2018.
12. Amy Wax and Larry Alexander, Paying the price for breakdown of the country's bourgeois culture,The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 9, 2017.
13. Dan Spinelli, ‘Not all cultures are created equal’ says Penn Law professor in op-ed, Daily Pennsylvanian, August 10, 2017.
14. Joe Patrice, Professor Declares Black Students ‘Rarely’ Graduate In The Top Half Of Law School Class, Above The Law, Mar 8, 2018.
15. Penn professor removed from class for saying black students underperform, Associated Press, Mar 14, 2018.
16. Juliana Feliciano Reyes, The internet wants Penn Law prof Amy Wax fired (again) — this time for her comments on the Kavanaugh hearing, The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 9, 2017.

External links

• Q&A with Amy Wax, C-Span, June 5, 2018.

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