Lois Weithorn, Professor of Law

Professor Weithorn joined the full-time UC Hastings faculty in 2001. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, and her J.D. from Stanford Law School. At Stanford, Professor Weithorn served as President of the Stanford Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. After graduating, she clerked for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed III of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit.

Prior to joining the faculty at UC Hastings, Professor Weithorn held positions at the University of Virginia (Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy and Department of Psychology). She served as a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, worked on federal mental health policy at the National Mental Health Association in Washington, D.C., and consulted with the Judicial Council of California and other agencies on child and family policy issues. Professor Weithorn also served on the Ethics Committee of the American Psychological Association and chaired several APA divisional committees relating to children and the law. In her spare time, she enjoys musical theatre and spending time with her family.

Professor Weithorn’s areas of recent scholarship include: the law and ethics of medical decision making; legal responses to minors involved with the child welfare, juvenile justice and/or mental health systems; domestic violence and its impact on children; intellectual disability and the death penalty; the legal effect of California’s Proposition 8 on California’s existing same-sex marriages.

Courses Taught: Bioethics, Law & Health Care Decision making; Family Law; Child Maltreatment; and Criminal Law

Expertise: Bioethics and the Law, Family Law, Juvenile Law, Mental Health Law, Social Science and Law, Criminal Law

My favorite part about teaching you is... the richness that your diverse backgrounds and life experiences bring to our classroom discussions.