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Shari Seidman Diamond

Shari Seidman Diamond headshot

Research Professor

Joint appointment

Howard J. Trienens Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University School of Law

Education

Ph.D., Social Psychology, Northwestern University; J.D., University of Chicago

Curriculum vitae

Bio

Shari Seidman Diamond is the Howard J. Trienens Professor of Law and a research professor at the American Bar Foundation. An attorney and social psychologist, she is one of the foremost empirical…

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Research focus

Legal decision-making, including conflicts between expertise and impartiality; discretion and control; equality and individuation; and science and law. Research addresses how these conflicts influence jury and judicial decision-making, judgments about fairness, and how courts use and fail to make use of scientific evidence.

Projects

Optimizing the Jury Instruction Process
Latest finding: Apr 18, 2012, with Elizabeth L. Murphy
This project studies approaches courts can use in revising jury instructions.
Building on the Arizona Filming Project
Latest finding: Sep 10, 2008, with Mary R. Rose
A variety of studies have been conducted based upon the deliberations of jurors in the 50 civil trials in the Arizona Filming Project. Ongoing studies are focusing on how juries handle comparative…
Condemn-Nation: The Social Psychological Foundations of the Kelo Backlash
Latest finding: Jan 23, 2008, with Janice Nadler
This project seeks to understand and explain the extreme public reaction to the Kelo case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that governments are permitted to force the sale of private property…

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Publications

"Trademark and Deceptive Advertising Surveys: Law, Science, and Design" (editor,with J. B. Swann)
American Bar Association
“Surveys in Modern Litigation Involving Trademarks and Deceptive Advertising”
American Bar Association
“Surveys in Dilution Cases II”
American Bar Association

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Commentary

Diamond on Jury Nullification

Feb 13, 2013

ABF Research Professor Shari S. Diamond was a guest commentator on the Life of the Law podcast, Episode 1, "The Secret Power of Jury Nullification." Listen here. Diamond's comments began at the 5:30…

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Presentations

Symposium Co-Chair, Panel Chair for “Jury Deliberation,” and Panel Member for “Preliminary Instructions and Assisting Juror Comprehension”
Oct 2012
Juror Perceptions of American Corporations
Sep 2012
Decision-making by Jurors, Juries, and Judges
Jun 2012

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Professional Service & Recognition

  • Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, April, 2012
  • Co-President, Society for Empirical Legal Studies, 2010-2011
  • Chairperson, Dean’s Search Committee, Northwestern University, 2011
  • Faculty Director, JD/PhD Program, Northwestern U. Law School
  • Special Advisor, ABA Commission on the American Jury Project, 2012-2013
  • Member, Seventh Circuit, Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions Committee
  • Member, Honorary Degrees Committee, Northwestern University
  • Member, Executive Director Search Committee, Law & Society Association 2010-2011
  • Faculty Director, JD/PhD Program, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Law and Society Association 
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Society for Empirical Legal Studies
  • Member, Editorial Boards, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies; Law and Human Behavior; Law & Policy; Psychology, Law & Crime; Psychology, Public Policy, & Law; and Justice System Journal
  • Member, Advisory Board, Evidence & Evidentiary Procedure, SSRN
  • Member, 7th Circuit American Jury Project Commission, 2005-
  • Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science/ABA National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS), 2005-
  • Member, American Jury Project, 2003-2005 (task: writing ABA Principles for Juries and Jury Trials— adopted 2/14/05)
  • Member, Advisory Committee for the Directorate on the Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences, National Science Foundation, 2002-