Joanna C. Schwartz
Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law
Joanna C. Schwartz is the Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where she has taught since 2006. She is one of the nation's leading authorities on police accountability and qualified immunity, and her empirical research has reshaped the scholarly debate on these topics. She is the author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She received UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015 and has served as Vice Dean for Faculty Development.
Teaching Style
Professor Schwartz combines rigorous doctrinal teaching in civil procedure with deep expertise in police accountability to create classes that are both technically precise and socially relevant. She uses the Socratic method consistently, cold-calling students to work through procedural rules and then apply them to real civil rights cases. Her empirical research on qualified immunity and police accountability brings data-driven analysis to classroom discussions, challenging students to evaluate legal doctrines based on their real-world effects.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Master the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as she tests detailed procedural knowledge
- 2Be prepared to discuss how procedural rules affect access to justice in civil rights cases
- 3Read her book Shielded for context on how qualified immunity operates in practice
- 4Think about the relationship between procedural rules and substantive outcomes in litigation
Areas of Expertise
Education
- J.D., Yale Law School
- B.A., Brown University
Notable Publications
- Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (Viking)
- Empirical studies on qualified immunity in Yale Law Journal and other leading reviews
Research Interests
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