Meredith J. Harbach
Professor of Law
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Profile
Meredith Johnson Harbach is Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law, where she teaches courses in Family Law, Children & the Law, Reproductive Justice, and Civil Procedure. Her recent scholarship has analyzed and critiqued the state’s relationship to families and children through the lens of America’s childcare law and policy. She also writes on reproductive justice and state politics. Her 2016 article, Nudging Parents, was winner of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Call for Papers Award. Professor Harbach is Chair of the AALS Section on Children & the Law. She supervises the Family Law Concentration Program at Richmond Law, and recently completed a three-year, gubernatorial appointment to the Virginia Council on Women, where she served as Chair of the Women’s Healthcare Initiative. During the 2017-18 Academic Year, Professor Harbach was a Visiting Scholar with the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative at Emory Law School.
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Presentations
Presenter, "Parens Patriae and Vulnerability Theory," Annual Meeting, Law & Society Association (June 2019)
Presenter, "Childcare and the New Parens Patriae," Annual Conference, Family Law Scholars & Teachers (May 2019)
Presenter, "The New Parens Patriae," Richmond Law's "What I'm Working On" Series, University of Richmond School of Law (March 2019)
Presenter, "Parens Patriae and Paternalism," A Workshop on the Clash of Values: Paternalism versus Liberalism, Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative (January 2019)
Presentations Prior to 2019
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Memberships
Chair, AALS Section on Children and the Law (2018 - 2018)
Chair-Elect, AALS Section on Children and the Law (2017 - 2017)
Member, Virginia Council on Women (2014 - 2017)
Secretary, AALS Section on Children and the Law (2016 - 2016)
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Bar Admissions
Texas
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Professional Experience
Professor of Law (2016 - present)
University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VAAssociate Professor of Law (2013 - 2016)
University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VAAssistant Professor of Law (2009 - 2013)
University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VAAssistant Director, Lawyering Program (2007 - 2009)
New York University School of Law, New York, NYActing Assistant Professor (2005 - 2009)
New York University School of Law, New York, NYLitigation Associate (2002 - 2005)
Smyser Kaplan & Veselka LLP, Houston, TXLaw Clerk to the Hon. Nancy F. Atlas (1997 - 1999)
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston, TX
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Presentations
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Publications
Journal Articles
Childcare, Vulnerability, and the New Parens Patriae, 37 Yale Law and Policy Review 459 (2019).
Nudging Parents, 19 The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice 73 (2016).
Sexualization, Sex Discrimination, and Public School Dress Codes, 50 University of Richmond Law Review 1039 (2016).
Childcare Market Failure, 2015 Utah Law Review 659 (2015).
How (Not) to Talk about Abortion, 47 University of Richmond Law Review 425 (2012).
Outsourcing Childcare, 24 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 254 (2012).
Tribute to Professor Carroll: "He Was So Kind & Generous", In Memoriam: Professor John F. Carroll, IV 46 University of Richmond Law Review 963 (2012).
Is the Family a Federal Question, 66 Washington and Lee Law Review 131 (2009).
At the Intersection of Bankruptcy and Divorce: Property Division Debts Under the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994, 97 Columbia Law Review 91 (1997).
Book ChaptersYoung v. United Parcel Service, in Feminist Judgments: Reproductive Justice Rewritten (Cambridge University Press) (Kimberly Mutcherson, ed.) (2020).
Feminist Legal Theory, in The Oxford Handbook of Children's Rights Law (Oxford Univ. Press) (2019).
Book ReviewsForward-Looking Family Law, 51 Tulsa Law Review 419 (2016).
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In the News
Is your body appropriate to wear to school? (New York Times)
Tue., Apr. 17, 2018Students are refusing to wear bras in a "bracott" to protest their school's dress code (Bustle)
Tue., Apr. 17, 2018DOMA ruling will bring Fort Lee couple military spousal benefits (CBS6)
Wed., Jun. 26, 2013Supreme Court rulings don't affect Virginia same-sex marriage ban (Daily Press)
Wed., Jun. 26, 2013Supreme Court may hear case that could affect Virginia same-sex marriage ban (Daily Press)
Thu., Nov. 29, 2012Proposed regulations are bad law, bad for women (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Tue., Jun. 12, 2012