Dr. Meera E. Deo

Meera E. Deo, is a professor of law at Southwestern Law School and the William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law at the American Bar Foundation (ABF). She is an interdisciplinary scholar who utilizes empirical methods to interrogate trends in legal education, institutional diversity, and affirmative action. Dr. Deo is also Director of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) based at Indiana University. Her book, Unequal Profession: Race and Gender in Legal Academia (Stanford University Press, 2019), draws from the first empirical study of law faculty utilizing an intersectional lens to investigate raceXgender challenges and identify solutions to overcome barriers facing traditionally underrepresented faculty. In addition to authoring dozens of scholarly articles, reports, essays, and book chapters, Professor Deo is a co-editor and contributing author for Power, Legal Education, and Law School Cultures (Routledge Press, 2019). She has held visiting positions at Berkeley Law, UC Davis School of Law, UC Irvine School of Law, and UCLA School of Law. 

Dr. Deo practiced civil rights law with the ACLU National Legal Department in New York City, where she worked on impact litigation involving privacy and cyberspace law.  She was later Staff Attorney for Women’s Health, and Director of the Breast Cancer Legal Project at the California Women’s Law Center, a statewide women’s advocacy nonprofit based in Los Angeles.  The National Science Foundation (NSF), Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship, AccessLex Institute, WoltersKluwer, and numerous additional grants and awards have supported her groundbreaking research. Professor Deo is on the Executive Committee of the AALS Sections on Law and the Social Sciences and Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession, is on the Litigation Committee of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and was a Senate-appointed member of the California Commission on Access to Justice. She has served as an empirical research consultant to the South Asian Network (SAN) and the ACLU of Southern California. 

Professor Deo’s scholarship draws from original mixed-method empirical research to investigate law student and law faculty experiences, with a focus on vulnerable and marginalized populations. She is a regular speaker at national and regional conferences including those organized by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), the American Sociological Association (ASA), and the Law & Society Association (LSA). She also is a frequent consultant to law schools seeking to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus.