The American Law Institute (ALI) recently announced 60 newly elected members, including Stanford Law School Professor Michael S. Wald.

ALI members are highly regarded judges, lawyers and law professors who are nominated by their peers, vetted by ALI’s Membership Committee and elected by the ALI Council.  ALI is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. By participating in the Institute’s work, its distinguished members have the opportunity to influence the development of the law in both existing and emerging areas, to work with other eminent lawyers, judges, and academics, to give back to a profession to which they are deeply dedicated, and to contribute to the public good.

Wald is the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law, Emeritus and has been a member of the Stanford Law School faculty since 1967. He has had a distinguished career as an academic researcher, teacher, and public official. Wald is one of the leading national authorities on legal policy toward children, and he drafted the American Bar Association’s Standards Related to Child Abuse and Neglect, as well as major federal and state legislation regarding child welfare.

Wald has served as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Human Services, and senior advisor to the president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He is currently a member of a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Parenting and the San Francisco Our Children Our Families Council.