Lyrissa Lidsky

Lyrissa Lidsky is the Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Chair in U.S. Constitutional Law at Florida Law. The focus of her research and teaching is the intersection of Tort Law and the First Amendment, with an emphasis on defamation and free speech issues in social media.

Lidsky is co-reporter on the Restatement of Defamation and Privacy, which is now in progress. She recently succeeded Judge Robert Sack as the author of Sack on Defamation. She has authored Media Law and First Amendment casebooks, a reference book on press freedom, and dozens of articles, culminating in a recent article in the Virginia Law Review, co-authored with Professor Christina Koningisor, called First Amendment Disequilibrium. Her works have been cited by a number of state supreme courts, federal courts, and the highest courts of Canada and Hong Kong.

Lidsky was Dean of the University of Missouri School of Law from 2017-2022. Missouri Lawyers Media named Lidsky its 2020 Woman of the Year based on her scholarship, teaching and mentorship of students, and engagement of constituencies supporting the school of law.

Before becoming Mizzou Law’s dean, Lidsky held the Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in Law at UF Law and served in various associate dean positions. During her 25 years at UF, she has received a number of teaching awards, including student-selected awards such as Teacher of the Year and Faculty Graduation Speaker, as well as an award selected by faculty committee.

Before becoming a law professor, Lidsky served as a clerk for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, Calif. Lidsky received her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law with high honors. She was initiated into Order of the Coif in recognition of her scholastic achievement and served as articles editor of the Texas Law Review. Before law school, she was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University in England, studying medieval legal history and early development of the Common Law. She received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in English and political science from Texas A&M University.