Wes E. Henricksen

Constitutional Law, Florida Constitutional Law, First Amendment Seminar, and Torts

Wes Henricksen is an Associate Professor at Barry University School of Law, where he has taught since 2016. Professor Henricksen teaches and writes about constitutional law, with a focus on First Amendment free speech protections. He has won awards for teaching and scholarship, and his work has been cited in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives.

Professor Henricksen was selected to present his article, Scientific Knowledge Fraud, at the Stanford-Penn-Northwestern Junior Faculty Forum for Law and STEM at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He has also presented his scholarship at other law schools, workshops, and conferences. He is the author of three books. His most recent scholarly book is In Fraud We Trust, published by the University Press of Kansas, which aims to offer solutions to the recent rise in false and misleading information on digital platforms. In the book, he argues that the laws put in place to address fraud have failed to keep pace with the new ways to carry out fraud that have emerged. His other books include It Depends, a poetry collection about law school life, and Making Law Review, a guidebook for students interested in journal membership.

Professor Henricksen teaches, or has taught, Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Torts, and Securities Regulation, among other courses. Barry Law students voted him Professor of the Year in 2018, 2019, and 2022.

Prior to joining the Barry Law faculty, Professor Henricksen clerked for the Hon. Bruce J. McGiverin at the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, and spent a decade in private practice in Miami and San Diego. He graduated number one in his major and with summa cum laude honors at Washington State University, and received his J.D. from the University of Washington, where he served as the Executive Notes & Comments Editor on the Washington Law Review. Professor Henricksen has worked, lived, or studied in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, and he is fluent in Spanish. He is admitted to the state bars of California, the District of Columbia, and Florida.

Professor Henricksen’s most recent publications and working papers can be found on the Social Science Research Network.

News:
Barry Law Professor to Present at Stanford-Penn-Northwestern Law and STEM Forum

Recent Publications:
- Privacy and Propaganda, Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal (forthcoming 2026)
- The Price of Disinformation, UC Irvine Law Review (forthcoming 2025)
- In Fraud We Trust: How Leaders in Politics, Business, and Media Profit from Lies--and How to Stop Them (2024)
- Dismantling the Political Duopoly, 129 Penn State Law Review Penn Statim 204 (with B. Paige Lawson)