Theanne Liu Svedman

Theanne Liu Svedman serves as a Research and Instruction Law Librarian, supporting the Law Library’s research and reference services and teaching legal research to Cornell Law’s J.D. students, including in the Lawyering program.

Prior to joining Cornell, Theanne worked at the Law Library of Congress as the American Association of Law Libraries George A. Strait Fellow. As a Fellow, Theanne worked in the Public Services Division where she provided authoritative legal research and reference support to members of Congress and other parts of the government, as well as to the public. She also worked on projects including updating research guides, state law collections, and conducting research in the Manuscript Division’s papers of Supreme Court Justices and members of Congress. Before law librarianship, Theanne practiced as an associate attorney in Outten & Golden LLP’s class action practice group. There, she primarily represented workers challenging wage-and-hour violations, independent contractor misclassification, and employment discrimination in various industries, including restaurant workers, gig economy and newspaper delivery drivers, and political campaign organizers. Theanne was also a Litigation Fellow at AARP Foundation, working on impact litigation cases and Administrative Procedure Act challenges on behalf of low-income older adults, and contributed to Supreme Court amicus briefs. 

Theanne earned her J.D. and M.S.W. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and the Brown School. She will also earn her M.L.I.S. in Law Librarianship from the University of Washington in August 2026. She holds a B.A. from Northwestern University. Theanne remains passionate and interested in workers’ rights and employment law, Critical Race Theory, critical legal information literacy, and access to justice.