Allen Mendenhall

Allen Mendenhall
Basic facts
Organization:	Heritage Foundation
Role:	Senior Analyst
Location:	Auburn, Alabama
Education:	• Furman University, B.A. • West Virginia University, M.A., J.D. • Temple University, L.L.M. • Auburn University, Ph.D.

Allen Mendenhall is an American lawyer, author, professor, and senior analyst at the Heritage Foundation where he focuses on ESG and capital markets. He was previously associate dean and professor at the Sorrell College of Business at Troy University. Mendenhall has authored books, essays, and articles on topics within classical liberalism, legal philosophy, and economics. Some of his notable writings include the collections of essays Of Bees and Boys and Literature and Liberty: Essays in Libertarian Literary Criticism.

Biography

Mendenhall became a senior advisor for the Capital Markets Initiative at the Heritage Foundation in May 2025. Prior to joining the Heritage Foundation, Mendenhall was a business professor and associate dean at Troy University, where he also directed the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy. Mendenhall earned his bachelor's degree in English from Furman University, his master's degree in English and law degree from West Virginia University, his LL.M. from Temple University, and his Ph.D. in English from Auburn University.

Previously, Mendenhall was associate dean and founding executive director of the Blackstone & Burke Center for Law & Liberty at Faulkner University Thomas Goode Jones School of Law for four years. From 2011 to 2022, Mendenhall edited Southern Literary Review, an online literary journal. Mendenhall's other experience includes stints with the American Institute for Economic Research, Cato Institute, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Mont Pelerin Society, Abbeville Institute, Philadelphia Society, Heartland Institute, and Institute for Humane Studies, among others. He was also a staff attorney for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore and Alabama assistant attorney general.

Work and activities

The Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation's mission is "to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." Mendenhall joined as a senior advisor for the Capital Markets Initiative in May 2025, a role in which he focuses on strategy and outreach related to ESG and capital markets.

Federalist Society

Mendenhall became the president of the Montgomery Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society in 2013. The Federalist Society is a nonprofit organization that calls itself "a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities."

The Heartland Institute

Mendenhall became a policy advisor for the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, in 2016. The Heartland Institute's mission is "to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems."

Mises Institute

Mendenhall became an associated scholar with the Mises Institute in 2016, a nonprofit organization with a mission "to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. " In that role, Mendenhall has authored numerous articles, given lectures, and participated in other forms of media related to the institute's mission.

Troy University

Mendenhall was associate dean and professor in the Sorrell College of Business and executive director of the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy. While under Mendenhall, the Johnson Center launched a "Free Enterprise Scholars" program for business majors, who Mendenhall said were "the people who will graduate and populate our companies and corporations. If they don’t have a principled understanding of how markets work and why they serve human betterment, then they will go into businesses and adopt different left-wing positions that will ultimately harm greater society, even if they’re well-intentioned.”

American Institute for Economic Research

Mendenhall was a scholar and trustee at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), an organization that says it "educates people on the value of personal freedom, free enterprise, property rights, limited government, and sound money." At AIER, Mendenhall wrote articles like "Corporate Wokeness Hurts the Groups It Purports to Help" and "What Coronavirus Teaches Us About Human Connection," among others.

Philadelphia Society

Mendenhall was a trustee of the Philadelphia Society from 2018 to 2022. The Philadelphia Society describes itself as "a membership organization of scholars, educators, journalists, business and professional leaders, clergy–thoughtful analysts of current trends and public policy–all dedicated to the goal of deepening the intellectual foundations of a free and ordered society and to broadening the general understanding of its basic principles among the public at large."

See also

• What is an influencer?
• Federalist Society
• Heritage Foundation
• Cato Institute

External links

• Allen Mendenhall personal website
• Allen Mendenhall on X