Legal Information Strategy · AI Governance · Open Access

Femi Cadmus

As a lawyer, law professor, academic librarian, and legal information strategist, I have spent over three decades shaping the future of legal education and research at the world's premier institutions. Serving on key legal information advisory boards and as a Past President of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), I combine executive leadership with deep faculty insight to partner with academic, judicial, and private organizations—driving open-access scholarship and access-to-justice initiatives, navigating AI integration, and building high-impact operational strategies.

View Advisory Services
30+ Years of Leadership
$9M+ Budgets Led
Yale · Duke · Cornell Academic Appointments
President AALL · 2018–2019
About

Leading Innovation in Legal Information

Femi Cadmus

Born in New York City and educated across three continents, my professional journey brings a profound global perspective to legal information—one shaped by decades of practice, scholarship, and leadership in some of the most demanding legal environments in the world.

My career spans over three decades in academic law librarianship at both public and private institutions, including leadership positions at Cornell, Duke, and Yale. I served as President of the American Association of Law Libraries (2018-2019) and remain actively engaged in advancing legal scholarship, technology in legal practice, and access to justice globally.

I am Founder of Law Archive and a Co-founder of LawArXiv (succeeded by Law Archive), pioneering open access legal scholarship repositories. I have served on several boards including Yale Law Journal Company Inc. and Yale Law Journal Fund Inc. as Treasurer. I hold an LL.M. in Law in Development from the University of Warwick (England), and admitted to practice in New York.

Legal Research & Instruction
Advanced legal research, international law, and innovative teaching methodologies
Technology in Law
Law practice technology, AI regulation, and digital transformation in legal services
Strategic Leadership
Library administration, collection development, and institutional partnerships
Scholarly Publishing
Open access initiatives and global legal information access
Experience

Leadership in Legal Education

Transformative Leadership in Legal Education

25+ years of academic law library leadership in public and private institutions driving innovation in legal research, pedagogy, and tech integration while championing open access to legal scholarship globally. Led organizations of 20–38 professionals with budgets up to $9M+, delivering strategic direction, operational excellence, and transformational change. Teaching courses in Technology in the Practice of Law, Advanced Legal Research, and Legal Research Clinic, shaping how future lawyers engage with information and emerging technologies. Femi Cadmus' academic appointments have included serving as Law Librarian & Professor of Law at Yale, Director of the J. Michael Goodson Law Library & the Archibald & Frances Fulk Rufty Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Duke, and the Edward Cornell Law Librarian & Professor of the Practice at Cornell.

Education & Scholarship

Academic Background & Contributions

Education

LL.M. (Law in Development), University of Warwick, Coventry, England
MLIS, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
B.L., Nigerian Law School, Lagos Nigeria
LL.B. (Hons), University of Jos, Nigeria

Bar Memberships: Admitted to practice in New York (active) and Nigeria (inactive)

Recent Publications
New Perspectives on the Legal Treatise, Co-edited with Nicholas Mignanelli, William S. Hein (2025)
"The Role of a Leadership Institute for Academic Law Library Directors" with Michelle Cosby, AALL Spectrum (2026)
"The Making & Marketing of Law Archive" with Nor Ortiz and Mike VanderHeijden, AALL Spectrum (2025)
Teaching
Technology in the Practice of Law
Advanced Legal Research
Law Practice Technology
Legal Research Clinic
Foundations in American Law
Select Leadership & Founding Roles
President, American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) 2018-2019
Vice-President, AALL 2017-2018 | Executive Board Member 2013-2016
Founder, Law Archive 2023
Co-founder, LawArXiv 2016
Treasurer, Yale Law Journal Company Inc. 2024-2026
Treasurer, Yale Law Journal Fund Inc. 2024-2026

Select Speaking Engagements

2026: AI and the Federal Courts, District of Connecticut Judicial Conference, Old Saybrook CT
2025: Why Should Scholars Use Law Archive and CrimRxiv? International Open Access Week, O.P. Jindal Global University, India (Virtual)
2024: AI Regulation: What State Government Officials Need to Know, Council of State Governments National Conference, New Orleans, LA
2023: AI, Jurisprudence & the Rule of Law, AALS, Washington DC
2023: Global Online Access to Legal Information (GOALI), IALL, UN Geneva, Switzerland
2022: Law Library Internships: Growing Our Profession Responsibly and Sustainably, AALL Annual Meeting, Denver CO
2021: Research in the Time of COVID, Society for Scholarly Publishing, Raleigh NC (Virtual)
Advisory & Consulting Services

Strategic Leadership

Strategic Leadership

An accomplished leader with a history of driving excellence across complex organizations, Femi specializes in managing substantial budgets exceeding $9M and leading large-scale teams toward institutional growth. She offers specialized consulting expertise in comprehensive law library reviews, space and collection modernization, and long-term sustainability. Her extensive background on ABA accreditation site teams provides organizations with a sharp, contemporary understanding of evolving accreditation standards and how to seamlessly align information services with institutional priorities.

Technology & AI Governance

A strategic advisor at the intersection of law and digital transformation, Femi provides high-level guidance on the regulatory and operational impacts of AI. Her insights on emerging technologies and their evidentiary implications have been trusted by federal judges and state officials to navigate the shifting boundaries of the profession.

Next-Generation Legal Education

Grounded in the conviction that research is a professional lens, Femi develops advanced methodologies that prepare future lawyers for tech-driven information ecosystems. She equips practitioners to not only find information but to master the tools that define modern legal practice.

Open Access & Scholarly Publishing

As a founder of repositories that redefine open access legal scholarship, Femi offers a rare insider's perspective on the open access publishing landscape. She partners with institutions to build and scale open-access systems that ensure legal knowledge is both preserved and accessible in a global digital era.

Let's Connect

I am always interested in discussing legal research, library innovation, technology in legal practice, and opportunities for collaboration in advancing access to legal information globally. Available for select advisory and consulting roles.

fcadmus@icloud.com