Since joining the faculty in 2003, Professor Pathak has taught civil procedure, federal courts, advanced appellate advocacy, remedies, torts, and evidence. Her scholarship focuses on the federal courts and is animated by a desire to evaluate critically what principled limits can and should restrict federal judicial power viz a viz the state courts. She currently serves on the Amicus Brief Committee of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

An accomplished appellate advocate, Professor Pathak has represented parties before the United States Supreme Court in several cases including Evans v. Chavis, 546 U.S. 189 (2006) and Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 552 U.S. 214 (2008). Prior to entering academia, Professor Pathak was a business litigator and served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Raymond C. Fisher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Pathak received her J.D. from the New York University Law School where she was a notes development editor of the New York University Law Review. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar and received the Wollenberg Award for Excellence in Debate.

Articles

• Discretionary Clause Bans & ERISA Preemption, forthcoming in the South Dakota Law Review (2011)
• Incorporated State Law, 61 Case Western Reserve L. Rev. 823 (2011)
• Statutory Standing and the Tyranny of Labels, 62 Oklahoma L. Rev. 89, (2010).
• Understanding and Problematizing Contractual Tort Subrogation, (with Brendan S. Maher), 40 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 49 (2008).
• Breaking the “Unbreakable Rule”: Federal Courts, Article I, and the Problem of “Related To” Bankruptcy Jurisdiction, 85 Or. L. Rev. 59 (2006)

Editorials and Commentaries

• When Procedure Stands in the Way of Justice, L.A. Daily Journal, January 24, 2006, at 8.

• Moderator, Land Use and Federalism, SEALS, July 2011, Hilton Head, South Carolina
• Perspectives on ERISA, South Dakota Law Review ERISA Symposium, February 2011, Vermillion, South Dakota.
• Does Federalism Serve Progressive Justice?, LatCritXV, October 2010, Denver, Colorado.
• Incorporated State Law, Third Annual Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop, sponsored by the University of Illinois, October 2010.
• The Supreme Court, Orange County Roosters, August 2010, Costa Mesa, California.
• Statutory Standing and the Tyranny of Labels, Univ. of Houston Law Center, Feb. 19, 2009
• Appearances and Realities of Power Across Scales: Dilemmas of Categorization, panel moderator, LatCrit XII, Miami, Florida, Oct. 2007
• Clarifying Equitable Remedies: The Supreme Court’s Sereboff Decision and Implications for Subrogation and Contracting, national teleconference moderator, American Health Lawyers’ Association, Oct. 2006
• Dalits in India: The Criminalization of Status, LatCrit XI, Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct. 2006
• Can AEDPA “Be Reasonable”? How Federal Courts Should Apply California’s Indeterminate Law of Timeliness, Work-in-Progress Session, Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, Nassau, Bahamas, July 2006
• Connecting the Rights Deficit at Home with the Rights Deficit Abroad, panel moderator, Western Law Professors of Color Conference, San Diego, California, Mar. 2006
• The Constitutional Basis of “Related To” Bankruptcy Jurisdiction, Work-in-Progress Session, National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, Washington D.C., Oct. 2004
• Choosing a Legal Career, First National South Asian Bar Association Conference, Los Angeles, California, June 2004