(Syracuse, NY | April 27, 2023) Leading expert on civil procedure, civil rights litigation and disability law Katherine A. Macfarlane will join the Syracuse University College of Law faculty as Associate Professor of Law, and Director of the College’s Disability Law and Policy Program this fall.
Macfarlane comes to Syracuse Law from the Southern University Law Center where she served as an associate professor. Previously, she served as an associate professor at the University of Idaho College of Law, and from 2013 to 2015, she served as a teaching fellow at the LSU Hebert Law Center. Macfarlane also serves as the Special Counsel for Disability Rights, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education. Prior to entering academia, Macfarlane was an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the New York City Law Department, serving as lead counsel in federal civil rights actions. She also practiced law at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in the firm’s Los Angeles and New York offices, where she represented plaintiffs in securities litigation. Macfarlane clerked on U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She is admitted to practice in California and New York.
Macfarlane has written extensively on accessibility, employment, accommodations, and many other disability law topics along with federal procedure and civil rights. At Syracuse Law, she will teach Civil Rights Litigation, Disability Law, and Torts.
“Professor Macfarlane deepens our bench of civil rights and civil procedure faculty with her extensive background in federal practice and procedure. She is also a noted disability law scholar who, as Director of the College’s leading Disability Law and Policy Program, will bring a fresh vision to our disability law courses and programming,” says College of Law Dean Craig M. Boise. All our students will benefit from her commitment to making the classroom an engaging learning environment.”
“I look forward to joining the impressive Syracuse Law faculty and teaching classes that align with my areas of expertise and my scholarship interests. The College of Law’s distinguished and world-renowned disability law program was a major driver of my decision,” says Macfarlane.
Macfarlane has been published in numerous law journals and high-profile publications including forthcoming works in American University Law Review and Tulane Law Review along with published articles and essays in Fordham Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Utah Law Review, and many more.
Professor Macfarlane has chaired the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Section on Disability Law and co-founded the AALS Section on Law Professors with Disabilities and Allies. Her academic awards include the Chai Feldblum Award, AALS Section on Law Professors with Disabilities and Allies, and the University of Idaho College of Law Diversity and Human Rights Award.
Professor Macfarlane received her B. A. in Spanish Language and Gender Studies, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University, and her J.D., cum laude, from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where she served as Chief Articles Editor of the Loyola Law Review and received the Order of the Coif. She was a judicial law clerk for the Hon. Arthur L. Alarcón of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Hon. Frederick J. Martone of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.