Chika Okafor

Assistant Professor of Law

Biography

Professor Chika O. Okafor is a law, economics, and inequality scholar who teaches constitutional law and climate/energy law. His scholarship integrates economic theory with empirical methods to explore how legal institutions and social networks impact major economic and social problems facing contemporary American society—including economic inequality, historic levels of incarceration, and climate change. His scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in leading peer-reviewed journals and law reviews, such as the Journal of Law and Economics. His research has been featured in media outlets including NPR's All Things Considered, and his writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and Newsweek.

Professor Okafor joined the Northwestern Pritzker Law faculty in 2025. He also holds dual courtesy appointments in the Economics Department and the Kellogg School of Management, and is a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. 

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Areas of Expertise

  • Civil Rights
  • Constitutional Law
  • Criminal Justice
  • Law and Economics

Courses

Education

  • PhD (Economics), Harvard University
  • MA (Economics), Harvard University
  • JD, Yale Law School
  • BA, Stanford University

Prior Appointments

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2024–2025
  • (Inaugural) Academic Fellow in Law & Political Economy and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School, 2022–2024
  • Reginald F. Lewis Fellow in Law Teaching, Harvard Law School, 2021–2022

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