Katherine Macfarlane

Professor Katherine Macfarlane is a leading expert on civil procedure, civil rights litigation, and disability law. She serves as Director of the College of Law’s Disability Law and Policy Program and teaches Civil Rights Litigation, Constitutional Law, and Disability Law.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, Professor Macfarlane served as Special Counsel to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. There, she worked on the Department’s overhaul of the regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, focusing on the regulations’ higher education provisions.

Her scholarship has appeared in or will appear in the Fordham Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, Columbia Law Review Forum, American University Law Review, the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, among others. She is also a frequent contributor to the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School Bill of Health Blog. Her civil procedure scholarship has focused on federal courts’ local rules and practices. From 2016 to 2019, Professor Macfarlane was a member of the District of Idaho’s Local Rules Advisory Committee and led a review of the rules’ compliance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 83. The Southern District of New York adopted Professor Macfarlane’s recommendations regarding its related cases rules.

She received her J.D., cum laude, from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. After graduating law school, she served as a law clerk to the Hon. Arthur Alarcón, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Hon. Frederick Martone, U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Kat is admitted to practice in New York (active) and California (inactive). She speaks Spanish and Italian.