Yutian An, whose research lies at the intersection of criminal law, administrative law, and comparative law, is joining the UCLA School of Law faculty as an assistant professor.

She will come to UCLA Law in January 2026 from Harvard Law School, where she has been a Climenko Fellow and lecturer. She will defend her Ph.D. dissertation in politics at Princeton University in December.

Brian Highsmith, whose research focuses on the design of local- and state-level democratic institutions in the United States, has joined the UCLA School of Law faculty as an assistant professor.