Nicholas Allard
Nicholas W. Allard is an American attorney, and former Dean and President of Brooklyn Law School.Biography
Allard grew up in Northport, Long Island, New York, and in Suffern, New York. He was inspired to go to law school when as a child he watched To Kill a Mockingbird at a drive-in movie theater. Allard graduated with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1974 after completing a 311-page long senior thesis titled "Assessing Community Corrections: The Promise and Pitfalls of Neighborhood Residential Treatment Centers." He then studied at Merton College, University of Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar and received an M.A. in politics, philosophy and economics in 1976. He went on to study at Yale Law School, where he received a J.D. in 1979.
Allard was a law clerk for Chief Judge Robert Francis Peckham of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and for Judge Patricia Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then worked for Senators Edward Kennedy and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
He was a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he chaired the firm’s Government Relations Group through 2005. Allard then served as chair of the Public Policy Department and co-chair of the Government Advocacy Practice Group at Patton Boggs.
Allard served as the eighth Dean of Brooklyn Law School from 2012 to 2018, and as President from 2014 to 2018. Allard is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, and teaches courses on Government Advocacy, Privacy Law in a Digital World, and Introduction to Legal Process. He also serves as Senior Counsel in the Public Policy and Regulation practice at Dentons law firm since 2015. In December 2018 the law school announced its intention to establish the Nicholas W. Allard Chair in Global Legal Studies, in recognition of Allard's legacy of global engagement.
He was named on the City & State 2017 “Brooklyn Influencers” list, received a top ranking in “Government Relations” by Chambers USA, was named one of D.C.’s “Top Lobbyists” by The Hill, was on the Super Lawyers list of The Washington Post, and received a Hermes Award for Contribution to Study of Communications from the Syracuse University College of Law. Allard has published scholarly articles on internet law, new media, and privacy.
