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Shauhin Talesh

Professor of Law
By courtesy, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Law & Society
Director, Law and Graduate Studies Program
Faculty Athletic Representative, UCI Athletics
General Editor, Law & Society Review
Advisory Board Member and Faculty Affiliate, Center in Law, Society & Culture 
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Organizational Research
Faculty Affiliate, Long U.S.-China Institute for Business & Law
Shauhin Talesh

Expertise:

Civil procedure, consumer law, insurance, organizations, empirical legal studies, law and society, law and inequality, law and social change

Background:

Professor Talesh is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work spans law, sociology, and political science. His research interests include the empirical study of law and business organizations, dispute resolution, consumer protection, insurance, and the relationship between law and social inequality. Professor Talesh is considered one of the leading scholars on organizational responses to law and compliance and the relationship between insurance, regulation and inequality.

Talesh’s empirical research addresses the intersection between organizations, risk, and consumer protection laws, focusing on private organizations' responses to and constructions of laws designed to regulate them, consumers' mobilization of their legal rights and the legal cultures of private organizations. His most recent research focuses on how cyber insurance and insurance companies shape cybersecurity and privacy law compliance among private organizations. He previously published multiple articles on how insurance companies, through employment practice liability insurance, construct the meaning of compliance with anti-discrimination laws.

Talesh has channeled his interdisciplinary approach to UC Irvine. Since 2014, he has served as Director of the Law & Graduate Studies Program. In that role, he advises all concurrent degree students, with special attention to those pursuing a JD and PhD simultaneously. He is also a co-founding member of the Law, Society and Culture Emphasis program.

Professor Talesh’s prominence as a scholar has led to elected and appointed leadership positions in national organizations. He Chaired the Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in 2020-21. In 2019-20, he served as Chair-Elect and Program Chair at the ASA Annual Meeting, and he previously served as elected Secretary/Treasurer of the section 2017-2019. He was also elected Chair of the American Association of Law School’s Insurance Law Section in 2019, after previously serving as elected Secretary, Treasurer, and Chair-Elect. From 2018-2020, he served on the Editorial Board for Law & Social Inquiry.

In 2019, Professor Talesh was selected for the inaugural class of UC Irvine Beall Applied Innovation Faculty Innovation Fellows, a program established “to recognize faculty who have a record of translating their society-impacting research as well as to make them ambassadors for UCI’s innovation culture.” In 2022, Professor Talesh was elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF). Membership is limited to just one percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction. Members are nominated by their peers and selected by the ABF Board. The ABF Fellows is a global honorary society that recognizes attorneys, judges, law faculty and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities. ABF Fellows hail from nearly 40 countries and hold a wide variety of influential roles. In spring, 2022, Professor Talesh was named the William T. Barker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Insurance Law at UC Berkeley Law School. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Sciences-Po, Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies, in Paris, France.

Talesh’s scholarship has appeared in multiple law and peer-reviewed social science journals including Law and Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and Law & Policy, and has won multiple awards in Sociology, Political Science and Law & Society.

Talesh regularly teaches Procedural Analysis, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Law, and Insurance Law & Policy. He was elected by UCI Law Students 1L Professor of the Year in 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2021-22. 

(Log in to view full course descriptions in the UCI Law Course Catalog)

Book:

  • Shauhin Talesh, Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism, (with E. Mertz & H. Klug) (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2021)

Publications:

Prof. Talesh's Scholarly Papers on SSRN

  • Feb 14, 2023:
    A Theoretically-Informed Empirical Research Approach Toward Studying Law, Faculty Development Workshop at the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison School of Law
  • Oct. 18, 2021:
    Featured Speaker, “The Technologization of Insurance: An Empirical Analysis of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on Cybersecurity and Privacy,” Berkeley Law, Online
  • July 14, 2021:
    Panelist, “The New Legal Realism Project: Translating Social Science for Real-World Law,” American Bar Foundation, Online
  • March 12, 2021:
    Panelist, The Role of Cyber Insurers in Promoting Cyber Security, The Role of Law and Government in Cyber Insurance Markets: A Cyber Cyber Insurance Conference, University of Connecticut Insurance Law Center, Online
  • March 5, 2021:
    Presenter, “Health Insurance and Transgender Patient Access to Health Care: Barriers, Work-Arounds, and the Social Construction of Medical Necessity,” 3rd Annual Consumer Law Scholars Conference, Berkeley Law Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, Online
  • Feb. 11, 2021:
    Guest Speaker, Beyond Insurance – How Managed Security and Technology are Redefining How Insurance Operates in Society, Sociotechnical Cybersecurity Interest Group, University of Maryland College of Information Studies, Online
  • Feb. 22, 2019:
    Presenter, “The Hidden Curriculum of Arbitrator Training: A Comparative Analysis of Private and State-Run Arbitration Hearings,” Consumer Law Scholars Conference, Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, Berkeley Law, Berkeley, CA
  • Jan. 5, 2019:
    Moderator, Insurance Law, Co-Sponsored by Law and the Social Sciences, 2019 AALS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA
  • April 9, 2018:
    Speaker, “Have Changes in Procedural Rules Made Substantive Relief in Federal Courts Problematic?” Civil Justice Research Initiative 2018 Inaugural Symposium: What’s Happening in Federal Court? Recent Findings and Research Strategies for the Future, Berkeley Law, Berkeley, CA
  • March 30, 2018:
    Baldy Distinguished Speaker, “How legal Intermediaries Facilitate and Inhibit Social Change,” Faculty Workshop, University of Buffalo School of Law, Buffalo, NY
  • March 20, 2018:
    Presenter, Cyber Risk Insurance: How to Live With It because You Can No Longer Live Without It, The Cove at UCI, Irvine, CA
  • Jan. 5, 2018:
    Speaker. Data Breach, Privacy and Cyber Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as “Compliance Managers” for Businesses, Association of American Law Schools Annual Conference, San Diego, CA.
  • June 29, 2017:
    Co-Presenter, “How Legal Intermediaries Facilitate or Inhibit Social Change,” Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics 29th Annual Meeting, Lyon, France
  • June 26, 2017:
    Presenter, “Data Breach, Privacy and Cyber Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,”  Sciences Po LIEPP interdisciplinary research center for public policy evaluation, Paris, France
  • Feb. 22, 2017:
    Presenter, “Data Breach, Privacy & Cyber Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,” American Bar Foundation, Chicago, Illinois
  • Jan. 30, 2017:
    Presenter, “Data Breach, Privacy & Cyber Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,” Center for the Study of Law & Society, UC Berkeley Law
  • October 2016:
    Invited Speaker, “Data Breach, Privacy and Cyber Liability Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,” University of Minnesota Faculty Workshop
  • September 2016:
    Invited Speaker, “Data Breach, Privacy and Cyber Liability Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,” University of California, Hastings Faculty Workshop
  • September 2016:
    Guest Speaker, Strategies for Success on the Law Job Market, UC Berkeley Workshop: Going on the Law Job Market, UC Berkeley
  • August 2016:
    Speaker, Professionalism in Law School and the Legal Profession, UCI Law Student Development Workshop, UC Irvine
  • June 2016:
    Invited Speaker, “Data Breach, Privacy, and Cyber Liability Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,” Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, UC Berkeley
  • June 2016:
    Presenter, Author meets Reader: Jeb Barnes & Thomas F. Burke, “How Policy Shapes Politics,” Law and Society Association, New Orleans, LA
  • June 2016:
    Invited Speaker, “New Legal Realist Research: Integrating Scholarship and Teaching, Realist and Empirical Methods for Law: A Collaborative Research Network,” Law and Society Association, New Orleans, LA
  • April 2016:
    Invited Speaker, “Data Breach, Privacy, and Cyber Liability Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,” Clifford Symposium on Tort Law and Social Policy at DePaul Law School, Chicago, IL
  • April 2016:
    Invited Speaker, “Data Breach, Privacy, and Cyber Liability Insurance: How Insurance Companies Act as ‘Compliance Managers’ for Businesses,” Drexel Law School Faculty Workshop, Philadelphia, PA
  • February 2016:
    Panelist, “The Current State of Law & Society Research,” West Coast Law & Society Retreat, Irvine
  • September 2015:
    Guest Speaker, “A New Institutional Theory of Insurance,” Faculty Workshop, Indiana University, Center for Law, Society & Culture, Bloomington, IN
  • January 2015:
    Speaker, “Legal Intermediaries: How Insurance Companies Construct the Meaning of Compliance with Anti-Discrimination Laws,” UCI Socio–Legal Studies Workshop, UCI School of Law
  • January 2015:
    Invited Speaker, “Legal Intermediaries: How Insurance Companies Construct the Meaning of Compliance with Anti-Discrimination Laws,” American Association of Law Schools Conference, Washington D.C.
  • November 2014:
    Invited Speaker, “Manufacturing Consumer Protection Law: The Private Construction of Public Legal Rights,” UC Berkeley, Jurisprudence & Social Policy, Dissertation Colloquium, Berkeley
  • September 2014:
    Speaker, "Legal Intermediaries: How Insurance Companies Construct the Meaning of Compliance with Anti-Discrimination Laws," UC Berkeley Law School Faculty Workshop
  • Sept. 19, 2014:
    Organizer and Speaker, "Legal Intermediaries: How Insurance Companies Construct the Meaning of Compliance with Anti-Discrimination Laws," Conference on The Relationship Between Insurance and Legal Regulation: Normative, Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives, UCI Law
  • September 2014:
    Invited Speaker, "Legal Intermediaries: How Insurance Companies Construct the Meaning of Compliance with Anti-Discrimination Laws," Rutgers Law School Center for Risk and Responsibility Insurance Law Faculty Workshop, Camden, NJ
  • Aug. 29–30, 2014:
    Panelist, "Legal Intermediaries: How Insurance Companies Construct the Meaning of Compliance with Anti-Discrimination Laws," New Legal Realism 10th Anniversary Conference: Future Directions for Legal Empiricism, American Bar Foundation and UC Irvine School of Law, Irvine, CA
  • July 23, 2014:
    Presenter, “The Forms and Functions of Insurance,” Orange County Bar Association, Insurance Law Section, Newport Beach, CA
  • April 11, 2013:
    Guest Speaker, University of Pacific- McGeorge Law School
  • Jan. 25, 2013:
    Guest Speaker, University of Wisconsin Law School
  • Jan. 6, 2013:
    Speaker, AALS conference, Law and Social Science Panel
  • April 13, 2012:
    Speaker, Business Law as Public Interest Law Symposium, UCI Law
  • Aug. 20, 2011:
    Presenting Paper, “How Organizations Shape the Meaning of Law,” American Sociological Association Conference
  • ABF Fellow, American Bar Foundation (2022-present)
  • UC Irvine School of Law, 1L Professor of the Year, 2018-2019, 2020-2021, 2021-22
  • Beall Faculty Innovation Faculty Fellow (inaugural class), UCI Beall Applied Innovation (2019-present)
  • Editorial Board, Law & Social Inquiry, 2018-present
  • American Sociological Association, Sociology of Law Section Chair (2020-2021) (elected)
  • American Association of Law Schools, Insurance Law Section, Chair, (2019-2020) (elected)
  • Visiting Scholar, Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), Paris, France, (June-July, 2017)
  • American Association of Law Schools, Insurance Law Section, Chair Elect, (2018-2019) (elected)
  • Elected Secretary/Treasurer, American Sociological Association, Sociology of Law Section, 2017-2019
  • Distinguished Teaching Award Nominee, UC Irvine School of Law, 2013-2014; 2014-2015
  • Best Graduate Student Paper, Law & Society Association, 2011
  • Best Graduate Student Paper, American Sociological Association, Sociology of Law, 2011
  • Best Graduate Student Paper, American Political Science Association, Law & Courts, 2010