Phillips-Sawyer becomes associate dean

Laura Phillips-Sawyer, who holds the Jane W. Wilson Associate Professorship in Business Law, has been named associate dean for academic affairs.

Phillips-Sawyer joined the UGA Law faculty in 2020, before which she was on the faculty at Harvard Business School. She holds a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

An expert in U.S. antitrust law and policy, she is a member of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association and serves on the editorial board of the Antitrust Law Journal. She is frequently in the media commenting on antitrust cases in outlets such as Bloomberg, BBC News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio.

She has published shorter commentary articles in Competition Policy International on labor markets and antitrust law, Concurrences Antitrust Bulletin on U.S. private antitrust enforcement, and ProMarket on antitrust and industrial policy.

Broadly, her scholarship explores questions of law and economics, which intersect with legal history, economic thought, business strategy and structure, and political organization. She is the author of American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Corporatism, and the ‘New Competition,’ 1890–1940 (Cambridge University Press) and “Restructuring American Antitrust Law: Institutionalist Economics and the Antitrust Labor Immunity, 1890–1940s” in the University of Chicago Law Review.

Teaching in the area of antitrust law, she has created the course Antimonopoly and American Democracy for the law school’s undergraduate minor. (This course was made possible by a grant from The Stanton Foundation.) She has also taught in the Terry College of Business, both in the MBA elective curriculum and the Economics Department. Phillips-Sawyer holds courtesy appointments in UGA’s Economics and History Departments, and she has received teaching awards at both the Terry College and the School of Law.

Weeks named UGA vice provost

Elizabeth Weeks (J.D.’99), who has served as the University of Georgia’s interim vice provost for academic affairs since June 2025, assumed the position on a permanent basis in February.

As vice provost for academic affairs, Weeks provides strategic leadership for the university’s academic programs and initiatives, policy development, governance processes and faculty matters. She chairs the UGA Arts Council and the university’s Leadership Council on Artificial Intelligence, while also serving as co-chair of the Humanities Council.

Weeks, who continues to hold the law school’s Kirbo Chair, joined the UGA law faculty in 2011.

Her research focuses on health care financing and regulation, health care reform and public health law. She is the author or co-author of two books, with a third solo-authored book scheduled for publication in 2027. She has written nearly 50 book chapters and articles in law reviews, journals and other publications.