Swethaa Ballakrishnen
Professor of Law
By courtesy, Professor of Sociology, Asian American Studies, and Criminology, Law and Society
Co-Director, Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession
Co-Director, Center in Law, Society & Culture, and Steering Committee Member, Law, Society, and Culture Emphasis
Co-Convener, Socio-Legal Studies Workshop
Expertise:
Legal Profession, Gender, Critical Feminist and Queer Theory, Global Souths, India
Background:
Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen (they/them) is a socio-legal scholar whose research examines the intersections between law, globalization and stratification from a critical feminist and global south perspective. Particularly, across a range of sites and different levels of analysis, their work interrogates how law and legal institutions create, continue, and counter different kinds of socio-economic inequalities.
Scholarship from Professor Ballakrishnen’s research projects has appeared in, among other journals, Law and Society Review, Law and Social Inquiry, Fordham Law Review, International Journal of the Legal Profession, and the Journal of Professions and Organization. Their first book, Accidental Feminism (Princeton University Press: 2021), unpacks the case of unintentional gender parity among India’s elite legal professionals; a second book Invisible Institutions (Hart Publishing: 2021, ed. with Sara Dezalay) brings together cross-subjective perspectives on legal globalization; and a third book, Gender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy (Zubaan Books, with Kalpana Kannabiran) investigates the gendered legacies of India’s privacy jurisprudence. These strains of research have received a range of honors and awards, including from the National Science Foundation, the American Sociological Association, and the Law and Society Association; and in 2022, Ballakrishnen was awarded the campus-wide UCI Distinguished Early-Career Award for Research. You can read more about their research praxis and commitments here.
Alongside this scholarly output, Professor Ballakrishnen’s research has been featured in a range of professional and popular media including Harvard Business Review, Stanford News Report, Above the Law, Bloomberg Law, Quartz, Law School Transparency Radio, The Practice, New Books Network, and WPR. They have presented research at over 100 conferences worldwide, delivered over 50 invited talks in a range of academic and professional settings, and their legal opinions on family and financial laws have been cited by the Probate and Family Court of Massachusetts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit respectively.
Professor Ballakrishnen is committed to building and serving socio-legal communities, especially ones that focus on critical questions concerning legal education and the profession. At UCI, they co-run the Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession, the Socio-Legal Studies Workshop, and the Law, Society, and Culture Emphasis. In addition, beyond UCI, they are affiliated faculty at the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, on the board of trustees of the Law and Society Association (LSA) and the ISA Research Committee on Sociology of Law, a co-founder of the LSA Collaborative Research Network on Legal Education, and on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession. In 2017-18, they were the AccessLex Visiting Scholar on Legal Education at the American Bar Foundation. In 2020, Professor Ballakrishnen was named a AALS Teacher of the Year.
For over a decade before entering academia full-time, Professor Ballakrishnen was a legal intern to Hon’ble Justice Arijit Pasayat of the Supreme Court of India, an international banking associate in Mumbai, and an external consultant for cross-border litigation financing in New York City.
(Log in to view full course descriptions in the UCI Law Course Catalog)
Books
- 2021. Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility Among India's New Legal Professionals. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021 Co-Winner of the ASA Sociology of Law Distinguished Book Award, 2022 Honorable Mention, Law and Society Association Herbert Jacob Book Prize
- 2021. Ballakrishnen, Swethaa and Sara Dezaley. Eds. Invisible Institutionalisms: Collective Reflections From the Shadows of Legal Globalization. London: Hart Publishing
- 2021. Kalpana Kannabiran and Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. Gender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy: Constitutional Negotiations of Sociality in India. New Delhi: Zubaan Books (Chicago: University of Chicago)
Book Chapters
- 2022. Silver, Carole and Swethaa Ballakrishnen. “International Student Mobility in Context: Understanding Variations in Sticky Floors, Springboards, Stairways, and Slow Escalators.” | The Globalization of Legal Education: A Critical Perspective. Eds. Bryant Garth, Greg Shaffer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 476-520
- 2021. Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. “India’s Women Legal Academics: Who They Are and Where You May Find Them.” | Gender and Careers in the Legal Academy, Eds. Ulrike Schultz, Gisela Shaw, Margaret Thornton, Rosemary Auchmuty, London: Hart, pp. 86-95
- 2021. Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. “Intha Gnalamum Poy Thaano - Imagining the Other in Contract.” | The Cabinet of Imaginary Laws, Eds. Peter Goodrich and Thanos Zartaloudis, London: Routledge pp. 78-85
- 2020 Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. "India's Legal Profession: Present and Future, A Revised Sociological Portrait." | Lawyers in 21st Century Society, Eds. Rick Abel, Ole Hammerslev, Hilary Sommerlad, and Ulrike Schultz, Hart Publishing, pp – 713-733
- 2020. Ballakrishnen, Swethaa and Carole Silver. "Language, Culture, and the Culture of Language: International JD Students in US Law Schools." | Power, Legal Education and Law School Cultures, Eds. Elizabeth Mertz, Meera Deo and Mindie Lazarus-Black. Routledge, pp – 191-223
Articles
- 2023. Swethaa Ballakrishnen. Anti/Aunty as Critical Method: From Gendered Resistance to Soft Grace, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
- 2022. Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Susanne Karstedt and Martin Ramstedt. Institutional Memory Papers, Vol.12 No S1. Onati Socio-Legal Studies
- 2022. Swethaa Ballakrishnen and Sarah Lawsky*. Law, Legitimacy, and Systemic Inequalities. Reading Meera Deo's Unequal Profession with Debbie Tuerkheimer's Credible | Law and Social Inquiry 47(3) doi:10.1017/lsi.2022.20
- 2022. Carole Silver and Swethaa Ballakrishnen. "Where Do We Go From Here: International Students, Post-Pandemic Law Schools, and the Possibilities of Universal Design" | Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law 2022(8): 313-73
- 2021. Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. Managing Sudden Death, Grief, and Loss in Close Community. Not Your Usual Law Review Essay | 74 Stanford Law Review Online 20-27
- Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. 2019. “Just Like Global Firms: Unintended Parity and Speculative Isomorphism in India’s Elite Professions.” Law and Society Review 53 (1) (108-140)
- Ballakrishnen, Swethaa and Carole Silver. 2019. “A NEW MINORITY? International JD Students in US Law Schools.” Law & Social Inquiry 44 (3), 647-678
- Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. 2018. Review of Ratna Kapur, Gender, Alterity and Human Rights: Freedom in a Fish Bowl. Feminist Legal Studies 27 (1): 1-6.
- Ballakrishnen, Swethaa, Priya Fielding-Singh, and Devon Magliozzi. 2018. “Intentional Invisibility: Professional Women and the Navigation of Workplace Constraints.” Sociological Perspectives 62 (1): 23-41. (2019 Kanter Award Nominee)
- Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. 2018. “Nevertheless They Persisted: Gendered Frameworks and Socialization Advantages in Indian Professional Service Firms.” Canadian Review of Sociology 55 (3): 343-361. (Canadian Review of Sociology 2019 Best Article Award)
- Silver, Carole and Swethaa Ballakrishnen. 2018. “Sticky Floors, Springboards, Stairways and Slow Escalators: Mobility Pathways and Preferences of International Students in U.S. Law Schools.” University of California Irvine Journal of International, Transnational and Comparative Law 3 (39): 101-132. Casebook Reproduction: Southworth and Fisk Legal Profession (2019)
- Ballakrishnen, Swethaa. 2017. "She Gets The Job Done: Entrenched Gender Meanings and New Returns to Essentialism in India’s Elite Law Firms.” Journal of Professions and Organization 4 (3): 324-42.
2017/18 JPO Best Paper Award
Textbooks and Casebooks
- 2022. Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach. 5th Edition, MN: West Academic (co-edited with Knake Jefferson, Pearce, Green, Joy, Kim, Murphy, Terry, and Brown)
- 2022. Women and the Law, 2021-22 Ed. MN: Thomas Reuters (editorial board with Kraiem, Abrams, Kukura, Rosario, Cantalupo, and Marvel)
Invited Talks
- Oct. 19-22, 2022:
Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison - Oct. 18-19, 2022:
Fordham Law Review Symposium, New York - Aug. 13-15, 2022:
International Legal Ethics Conference, UCLA - Aug. 5-8, 2022:
American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles - July 29, 2022:
Panelist, Trans Law Institute Annual Conference, Los Angeles - July 26-28, 2022:
Panelist, Transnational Contact Zones: African and South Asian Sexualities and Genders, Future Africa Campus, University of Pretoria - July 13-16, 2022:
Law and Society Association Annual Conference, University Institute of Lisbon - July 9-11, 2022:
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, University of Amsterdam - July 6-8, 2022:
European Conference on Politics and Gender, University of Ljubljana - June 16, 2022:
Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and Humanities Annual Conference - May 30, 2022:
Accidental Feminism Book Talk, Åbo Akademi University, Turku - May 26, 2022:
Accidental Feminism Book Talk, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark - May 25, 2022:
Accidental Feminism Book Talk, Lund University School of Law, Sweden - May 24, 2022:
Sociology Seminar Series, Lund University, Sweden - April 21, 2022:
Gender and Political Economy Roundtable, Georgetown University - April 12, 2022:
Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series, Graduate Institute Geneva - April 11, 2022:
Centre en Études Genre Seminar Talk, University of Lausanne - April 8, 2022:
Accidental Feminism Book Talk, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Zurich - March 17, 2022:
Faculty Workshop, University of California Davis School of Law - March 4, 2022:
Law Review Annual Symposium, Texas A+M School of Law - Feb. 28, 2022:
Faculty Workshop, Cardozo School of Law - Feb. 15, 2022:
Department Colloquia, Brown University Sociology - 2021:
2nd Annual SALSA Conference, Keynote, Penn Law School (virtual) - 2021:
Wilkins & Fong Legal Profession Seminar, Harvard Law School (virtual) - 2021:
Harvard Business Review Women At Work (virtual) - 2021:
Queering Class Roundtable, University of Kansas Law School (virtual) - 2021:
AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance National Conference (virtual) - 2021:
Mertz Law and Anthropology Seminar, Chicago Anthropology (virtual) - Dec. 14, 2021:
Presenter, Accidental Feminism, National Law School of India Public Lecture Series, Online - Dec. 9, 2021:
Presenter, Accidental Feminism, New York University, Abu Dhabi, Online - Dec. 9, 2021:
Law Gender and Popular Culture Panel, NYUAD (virtual) - Nov. 18, 2021:
Presenter, Young Arbitral Women Practitioners Panel, Online - Nov. 14, 2021:
Presenter, Fordham Law School Faculty Workshop, Online - Oct. 14, 2021:
Faculty Workshop, Fordham Law School - Sep. 21, 2021:
Women in Law and Legacies of Socioeconomic Inequality in India, Hopkins at Home Speaker Series (virtual) - Sept. 9, 2021
Panelist, Women in Law Conference, Online - April 26, 2021:
Law and Political Economy Conference, Yale Law School (virtual, recording) - Aug. 6-10, 2021
Featured Speaker, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Online - July 5, 2021
Featured Speaker, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Conference, Online - June 22, 2021
Featured Speaker, South Asian Bar Association North America Conference, Online - June 10, 2021
Featured Speaker, AALS Workshop for Beginner Empiricists, Online - May 31, 2021
Featured Speaker, Suites, Streets and States Plenary, American Bar Foundation, Online - May 27-30, 2021
Featured Speaker, Law and Society Annual Meeting, Online - May 10, 2021:
Center for South Asia, Stanford University (virtual, recording) - April 30, 2021
Featured Speaker, landing: Unpacking empire and ourselves I, Socio-Legal Studies Workshop and University Art Gallery, Online - April 29, 2021
Featured Speaker, "Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility Among India's Professional Elite," Center for South Asia, Stanford University, Online - April 26, 2021
Panelist, LPE, Inclusion & Public Law, Law and Political Economy Conference, Online - March 30, 2021
Featured Speaker, Accidental Feminism, Centre for Law & Social Change, City University of London, Online - March 11, 2021:
American Bar Foundation & UCI CERLP Book Celebration (virtual) - March 5, 2021
Featured Speaker, Harvard Business Review Women at Work: Women in Law Connect, Online - January 17, 2021
"Presumed Intolerant: Muslim Lawyers and Blasé Discrimination," Race, Racism, and Law Workshop, Duke University School of Law - November 17, 2020
"Accidental Feminism," UC Berkeley School of Law Faculty Workshop - March 3, 2020
"International JD Students in US Law Schools," Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA - Dec. 4, 2019
"A Conversation with Marc Galanter: Reflections on a Life in Legal Studies, Asian Studies and the Sudy of Social Inequality," NYU Abu Dhabi Global Asia Initiative, Abu Dhabi, UAE - Dec. 4, 2019
"Bhopal, Thirty Five Years After," NYU Abu Dhabi Global Asia Initiative, Abu Dhabi, UAE - Nov. 8, 2019
“Leading Differently Across Difference: Intersectional Gendered Alterities,” Freedman Institute National Leadership Conference. Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York - Oct. 7 & 17, 2019“Accidental Equality: Rethinking Frameworks of Legal Institutions in the Global South”
- Korea University-UCI Symposium. Korea University Law School, Seoul
- Global and International Studies Forum. University of California, Irvine
- Sept. 7, 2019
“Difference Blindness v. Bias Awareness: Why Law Firms With Good Diversity Intentions Still Fail,” LA County Bar Association Diversity Conference, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles - March 8 & June 8-9, 2019
“It is Not (Unless It Is) Discrimination: Model Rules 8.4(g), 1.16, and The Idea Of Good Counsel”- Legal Ethics Schmooze. University of California Irvine School of Law, Irvine
- Third Annual Legal Ethics Conference. California Western School of Law, San Diego
- Feb. 21, 2019
"Intentional Invisibility: Professional Women and the Navigation of Workplace Constraints,"Invited Speaker, Center for the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School, Stanford - Dec. 6, 2018
Transnational Feminisms: Building Solidarities Across Regions and Disciplinary Perspectives. NYU Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE - March 14, 2018
“Just Like Global Firms: Unintended Gender Parity and Speculative Isomorphism in India’s Legal Profession.” Carlos III-Juan Institute Comparative Sociology Speaker Series. Madrid, Spain - Dec. 16, 2017
“The Corporate Legal Sector’s Impact on India.” HLS GLEE Book Launch Conference. Delhi, India - Dec. 8-9, 2017
“Regulation of Legal and Judicial Services.” Stein Center for Law and Ethics. Fordham Law School, New York City - July 21-22, 2017
“Women Legal Academics in India: Who They Are and Where you Need to Look for Them.” Legal Ethics Schmooze. UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles - March 3-4, 2017
“The Importance of Being International?” Legal Education in Crisis Conference. American Bar Foundation, Chicago - May 4 & Oct. 8, 2016
- ABF Speaker Series. American Bar Foundation, Chicago
- Inequality Speaker Series. Lingnan University, Hong Kong
- March 10, 2016
“The Gendered Ideal Worker: Globalization, Gender and Labor In The Legal Profession.” Department of Law & Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender Studies, American University in Cairo, Egypt - Dec. 14-15, 2015
“Why Hari And Kumar (Don’t) Come To Australia: The Comparative Case of International Law Students.” Symposium on International Law Students, University of New South Wales Law School, Australia - 2014-5
- Cambridge Judge Business School Research Seminar Series. Cambridge University, UK
- The City Law School’s Critical Corporation Workshop Series. City University, UK
- Stanford Center for South Asia Brown Bag Series. Stanford University, Palo Alto
- Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession Speaker Series. Harvard Law School, Cambridge
Conference Presentations
- April 26, 2021
Panelist, "LPE, Inclusion & Public Law," LPE Conference (Virtual) - Feb. 19, 2021
Keynote Speaker, South Asians & Civil Rights: Rights, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Solidarity, Penn Law SALSA’s 2nd Annual Conference (Virtual) - 2020
"Global Identities, Law, and Society," American Sociological Association Annual Meeting (Virtual) - 2020
"I Do? LAT Relationships, Asexual Others, And Re-Queering Equality," Law and Society Annual Meeting (Virtual) - September 27, 2019
"Compensation and Diversity: Why Lawyers of Color and Women Continue to Make Less in Law Firms, and What Can Be Done About It?," 2019 LACBA Diversity & Inclusion Conference, Los Angeles, CA - May 30 – June 2, 2019
“Diversity and Networking in Law School: Are Students from Diverse Backgrounds Disadvantaged?” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C. - June 19-21, 2019
“Invisible Institutions: Rethinking Categories and Conversations.” Research Committee on Sociology of Law Annual Meeting, International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati - June 8, 2018
“Queer Theory of Law and Global Political Economy.” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada - June 7, 2018
“Sticky Floors, Springboards, Stairways & Slow Escalators: Mobility Pathways and Preferences of International Students in U.S. Law Schools.” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada - Aug. 12-15, 2017
"Gen(der) X: New Cultural Revolutions In The Global South And The Restructuring of Women’s Work.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada - June 20-23, 2017
“Present and Future: A Revised Sociological Portrait of the Indian Legal Profession.” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Mexico City, Mexico - Jan. 22-25, 2017
“Beyond Boom, Doom and Balance: India’s Elite Professional Women and The Selective Transformation of Latent Social Capital.” XV National Conference on Women’s Studies, Chennai, India - Aug. 20-23, 2016
“Nothing Ventured, Something Gained: Families, Firms and the Advantage of Absent Social Movements Among India’s Professional Elites.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Seattle - July 14-16, 2016
“Client Relationality as Privilege: The Case of Stratification in Indian Law.” International Legal Ethics Conference, Fordham Law School, New York - June 2-5, 2016
“Present and Future: A Revised Sociological Portrait of the Indian Legal Profession.” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans - May 5-6, 2016
“Mind Your Language: Ascription Metrics and Assimilation Strategies in International Legal Careers” (with Carole Silver). Metrics, Diversity and Law: 2016 Conference of The Research Group on Legal Diversity, American Bar Foundation, Chicago - Jan. 4-5, 2016
“India’s New Professional Elites.” Centre de Sciences Humaines Conference on Elites, Delhi, India - Aug. 22-25, 2015
“Same Same But Different: Unintended Gender Parity in India’s Elite Professions.” Gender and Work Roundtable, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago - Aug. 7-11, 2015
“Women in Black.” Diversifying Leadership: Perspectives from Women of Color in the US, India, and South Africa, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada - May 28-31, 2015
“Doing Gender Differently: Transitional Markets and Gender Egalitarianism.” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Seattle
- 2022-2023 Distinguished Early-Career Faculty Award for Research, UCI Academic Senate
- 2022 Honorable Mention for Herbert Jacob Book Prize, Law and Society Association
- Scroll.in: Prof. Ballakrishnen's book Accidental Feminism featured on shortlist for New India Foundation’s annual Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize for 2022
- Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession: Prof. Ballakrishnen featured in Winter 2021 Newsletter
- Law and Society Association: Prof. Ballakrishnen receives honorable mention for Herbert Jacob Book Prize
- New Books Network: Prof. Ballakrishnen interviews with New Books Network on Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility Among India’s Professional Elite
- American Bar Foundation: Prof. Ballakrishnen highlighted by Fellows of the American Bar Foundation for research and scholarship on law and society
- Law.com: Prof. Ballakrishnen highlighted for $500k+ NSF grant to fund research on diversity and networking in law school
- Lekh Podcast: LISTEN: Prof. Ballakrishnen discusses their book “Accidental Feminism”
- Oxford Human Rights Hub: Prof. Ballakrishnen’s book ‘Accidental Feminism’ reviewed by Isha Bhallamudi for analysis of gender parity in India
- UCI News: Prof. Ballakrishnen named a 2021-22 UCI Hellman Fellow
- UCI Law: Two UCI Law Faculty Members Named 2020 AALS Teachers of the Year
- Princeton University Press: Prof. Ballakrishnen’s new book “Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility among India’s Professional Elite” publishes on Jan. 12
- Bloomberg: Prof. Ballakrishnen quoted on lack of women lawyers in India and the need for greater gender diversity
- UCI Law: UCI Law Assistant Professor of Law Swethaa Ballakrishnen Recognized with Honorary Mention of 2020 Adam Podgorecki Prize
- Journal of Indian Law and Society Blog: Q&A interview with Prof. Ballakrishnen on legal education, teaching, identity and equity
- Harvard Business Review: Prof. Ballakrishnen on why women stay out of the spotlight at work
- Harvard Business Review Women at Work podcast: Prof. Ballakrishnen on Intentional Invisibility as a strategy women use at work
- MIT Center for Entrepreneurship: http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/women-and-work-intentional-invisibility/
- Institute of Leadership Management: https://www.institutelm.com/resourceLibrary/how-should-leaders-tackle-invisible-woman-syndrome.html
- In Her Sight: https://www.inhersight.com/blog/insight-commentary/dear-employers-i-wont-act-like-a-man?_n=33155514#