Alex M. Johnson Jr. returned to the Law School in 2007 as the Perre Bowen Professor of Law after serving as Dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Before joining the Minnesota faculty in 2002, he served seven years as the Vice Provost for Faculty Recruitment and Retention at the University of Virginia and was Mary and Daniel Loughran Professor of Law.

Johnson's teaching areas include property, modern real estate transactions, trusts and estates, and critical race theory. He served as the Harrison Foundation Research Professor of Law from 1992 to 1995. Johnson's current research interests include critical race theory, examining the social construction of race and ethnicity and its impact on law and legal issues, and the application of relational contract theories to interests in real property.

Immediately after law school, Johnson spent two years in private practice with Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles. He then taught for two years at the University of Minnesota Law School, before returning to his law firm for another two years. In 1984, Johnson joined the Virginia law faculty. He has been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, the University of Texas, and Washington University law schools. He has lectured widely on academic standards, critical race theory, and the efficacy of the LSAT and has appeared on numerous scholarly panels that address race as it relates to legal education.

Johnson has served as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admissions Council, the nonprofit corporation owned by ABA-approved law schools that produces and administers the LSAT, as well as the LSAC's Test, Development and Research, and Minority Affairs Standing Committees. Johnson has chaired several standing committees of the Association of American Law Schools, including Curriculum and New Scholarly Papers, and served on several AALS committees, including the Committee on Second Generation Diversity Issues. He has also served on and chaired several ABA law school site inspection teams as well as serving on several ABA standing and ad hoc committees. Johnson is currently the president of the executive committee of the Order of the Coif and is a member of the Academic Advisory Council for the Bill of Rights Institute. Johnson is a member of the American Law Institute and the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.