Dean Russell K. Osgood

Russell K. Osgood is Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (WashU Law), where he teaches constitutional law, criminal law, federal income tax, and American legal history. He joined WashU Law as a visiting professor in 2011 and led the school from September 2021 to June 2024, first as interim dean and, from April 2022, as dean. He was the 12th president of Grinnell College from 1998 to 2010, where he also taught history and political science, and dean of Cornell Law School from 1988 to 1998, after joining the Cornell faculty in 1980. He practiced law in Boston and taught at Boston University School of Law. He is an expert on American legal history, employee benefits and pension law, and income taxation; his books include Cases and Materials on Employee Benefits (with Peter Wiedenbeck), The Law in Massachusetts: The Supreme Judicial Court 1692-1992, and The Law of Pensions and Profit-Sharing. A U.S. Navy veteran, he holds a B.A. and a J.D. from Yale.