Lawrence Solan

Lawrence M. Solan (May 7, 1952 – March 2, 2024) was an American academic who was the Don Forchelli Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition at Brooklyn Law School.

Biography Background Lawrence M. Solan was born in New York City to Harold and Shirley Solan.

Solan obtained a B.A. summa cum laude from Brandeis University in 1974, a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1978, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1982.

Legal career Solan was a law clerk for Justice Stewart G. Pollock of the Supreme Court of New Jersey from 1982–83.

He joined the faculty of Brooklyn Law School in 1996, where Solan was the Don Forchelli Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition. In 2009, he was named Honorary Professor at the Wuhan Institute of Technology.

Among Solan's books are The Language of Judges (2010), The Language of Statutes: Laws and Their Interpretation (2010), and (with Peter Tiersma) Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Justice.

Solan was President of the International Association of Forensic Linguistics. He also served on the board of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, and the editorial board of the International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law.