Sheila Bedi

Clinical Professor of Law


Biography

Sheila A. Bedi is a clinical professor of law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, a law school clinic that provides students with the opportunities to work within social-justice movements on legal and policy strategies aimed at redressing over-policing and mass imprisonment. Bedi litigates civil-rights claims on behalf of people who have endured police violence and abusive prison conditions. She also represents grassroots community groups seeking to end mass imprisonment and to redress abusive policing. Bedi teaches classes on legal reasoning and writing and the law of state violence to students who are incarcerated through Northwestern’s Prison Education Program. Bedi’s partnerships with affected communities on litigation and policy campaigns have closed notorious prisons and jails, increased community oversight of law enforcement, created alternatives to imprisonment and improved access to public education and mental health services. Previously, Bedi served as a deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Her honors include the NAACP’s Vernon Dahmer and Fannie Lou Hamer Award and the Federal District Court Excellence in Public Interest Award (N.D. IL). Bedi writes about race, gender, and the justice system and her commentary has been published by U.S. News and World Reports, Huffington Post and USA Today


Areas of Expertise

  • Civil Rights
  • Civil Litigation


Education

  • BA, Michigan State University
  • JD, American University
  • LLM, Georgetown University

Prior Appointments

  • Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
  • Deputy Legal Director, Co- Director, Staff Attorney, 2003-2012, Southern Poverty Law Center
  • Executive Director, 2008-2009, Justice Policy Institute
  • Clinical Teaching Fellow/Civil Rights Staff Attorney, 2001-2003, Georgetown University Law Center

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