Mario L. Barnes is the Toni Rembe Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law. From 2009 until June 2018, he was a Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Research, and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law (UCI Law). At UCI Law, he also held a joint appointment (by courtesy) in the Criminology, Law and Society department, served as Faculty Affiliate in the Center in Law, Society & Culture, and as Co-Director of the UCI Center on Law, Equality and Race (2012-18). He previously taught at the University of Miami School of Law from 2004-2009.

He received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and an LL.M. from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a William H. Hastie Fellow. His research principally draws on empirical and critical studies of antidiscrimination to examine how law is used to facilitate or disrupt subordination along multiple lines of identity, especially gender and race. For the past several years, he has been an active member of the Critical Research on Race and the Law CRN (CRN 12) and the Empirical Methods and Critical Race Theory (e-CRT) working group—a national, multi-disciplinary convening, which brings scholars of varied methodologies/perspectives into conversation around the study of race.

He has authored/co-authored numerous articles in journals including, Law and Contemporary Problems, UCLA Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, Fordham Law Review, Berkeley Journal of African-American Law and Policy and the Law and Society Review (response essay and book reviews). He has been a member of the Law and Society Association since 2002 and has recently served in the following capacities: Publications Committee (2017-18); Budget and Finance Committee (2013-2016); Treasurer and Executive Committee (2013-15); Trustee (Class of 2011); Co-Chair (2010-11) and member (2011-12) of the John Hope Franklin Prize Committee; and, the President’s Committee to Review Annual Meetings (2009-10). He also previously served as a member of the Program Committee (Baltimore 2006), Graduate Student Workshop Committee (2009), Nominating Committee, and as Chair of the Diversity Committee. He was an advisory board member for Law and Social Inquiry (LSI) (Vol. 37) and has been a reviewer for LSI, LSR, Race & Social Problems and the Dubois Review. He received the Association of American Law Schools, Minority Groups Section, 2008 Derrick Bell Award (for junior scholars) and the 2015 Clyde Ferguson Award (for senior scholars). These awards are given to a scholar who, through activism, mentoring, teaching and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice.