hslau@email.unc.edu
University of North Carolina
Professor Lau’s current research examines international and comparative approaches to issues of gender and sexuality. He is presently working on projects that focus on the European Union, Hong Kong, South Africa, and the United States.
Professor Lau joined the University of North Carolina faculty in 2009, after spending two years as an Associate Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School, where he also co-directed Hofstra’s LGBT Rights Fellowship Program. Prior to joining the Hofstra faculty, Professor Lau worked at UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy. He has served twice as a visiting fellow at the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Comparative and Public Law. In addition, Professor Lau has worked for the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, Children Rights, and the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. He is also the immediate past president of the ACLU of North Carolina.
Professor Lau received his J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he was the Executive Topics & Comments Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and served on the staff of the Chicago Journal of International Law. At the University of Chicago, Professor Lau was named a Stonewall Scholar for excellence in his work related to sexual orientation rights and was awarded the Ignacio Martín-Baró Award for the best human rights paper by a professional or master’s degree student. Professor Lau completed his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude.