Joel F. Handler ’54

Joel died Sept. 22, 2022.

At Newark Academy, he was active in football, publications, and student government.

At Princeton, he majored in the Woodrow Wilson School and wrote his senior thesis on “The National Recovery Administration.” He joined Dial Lodge and was active in debating.

After earning his LL.B. at Harvard in 1957, he taught law at Harvard, Vanderbilt, and the University of Illinois. As Vilas Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin for 20 years, he specialized in poverty, social welfare, social movements, and legal rights. In 1985, he joined the faculty of the UCLA Law School. A seminal interdisciplinary scholar, he helped define the field of poverty law, pioneering the use of empirical methods to study the impact of law on poor people and other marginalized groups.

Joel authored 23 books, was a founder and president of the Law and Society Association, a Guggenheim fellow, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

On the occasion of his retirement in 2011, the UCLA Law Review hosted “Poverty and the Bureaucratic State: A Symposium in Honor of Joel Handler.” Seventeen distinguished scholars of law and society gathered to discuss his many contributions and the ongoing vitality of the research traditions he influenced.

Son of Charles Handler 1922 and brother of Alan B. Handler ’53, Joel is survived by his wife of 36 years, Betsy; three children; six grandchildren; and four great-grandsons.