An expert in civil procedure, complex litigation, and federal courts, Janet Cooper Alexander (MA '73) has written landmark articles on procedural design and on the institutional dynamics of securities class actions. Her current research focuses on class actions, the civil jury, procedural design, and terrorism and the courts.

In addition to her role as a professor at Stanford Law School, Professor Alexander has been a principal investigator at the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation, where she spearheaded interdisciplinary research in dispute resolution and litigation from 1994-2002. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1987, she was a partner at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco and an attorney at Califano, Ross & Heineman in Washington, D.C. Professor Alexander is a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler, LLB '49, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.