Katharine B. Silbaugh
Professor of Law
Katharine B. Silbaugh is a Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, where she has been on the faculty since 1993 and is recognized as a pioneer in the study of gender, household labor, and family care within legal frameworks. Her influential article Turning Labor into Love is a foundational text in the field, and she has co-authored books with Judge Richard Posner and Professor Katharine Baker. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and contributed to the plaintiffs' case in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts case that established the first same-sex marriage right in the United States.
Teaching Style
Professor Silbaugh brings a thoughtful, interdisciplinary perspective to family law and torts, weaving gender theory, economics, and social policy into doctrinal analysis. Her Socratic method is deliberate and searching, often asking students to consider how legal rules reflect and reinforce assumptions about gender, family, and care work. She cold-calls with questions that challenge students to examine the values embedded in seemingly neutral legal frameworks, and her classes frequently spark lively discussions about the relationship between law and social norms.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Think critically about how legal rules treat household labor, caregiving, and other forms of unpaid work
- 2Be prepared to discuss the policy implications of family law doctrines for different family structures
- 3Understand how torts and employment law intersect with gender and family roles
- 4Consider the empirical realities of how families function when analyzing legal rules that affect them
Areas of Expertise
Education
- J.D., with high honors, University of Chicago Law School
- B.A., magna cum laude, Amherst College
Notable Publications
- Turning Labor into Love: Housework and the Law (Northwestern University Law Review)
- The Essentials of Family Law (co-authored with Katharine K. Baker)
- A Guide to America's Sex Laws (co-authored with Judge Richard Posner, University of Chicago Press)