Prithika Balakrishnan

Bio

Prithika Balakrishnan research examines the intersections of criminal law, technology and ethics.  She co-directs the Criminal Practice Clinic and teaches a Criminal Law and Ethics seminar.  Professor Balakrishnan previously taught Criminal Law and Ethics and Advanced Criminal Trial Practice at UC Berkeley Law School.

Prior to academia, Professor Balakrishnan served as a Deputy Public Defender in San Francisco for over a decade.  She handled life-cases, sex crimes and homicides, conducting over 30 jury trials to verdict.  She also managed several of San Francisco’s mental health collaborative courts, which are lauded as national models of evidence-based, treatment-focused strategies for addressing mental health and addiction as root causes of criminality. Prior to her service as a public defender, Professor Balakrishnan was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras and a union organizer for UNITE HERE, representing San Francisco hotel employees in contract disputes with multi-national corporations.

Professor Balakrishnan graduated from Yale Law School, where she served as Articles Editor of the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal and was awarded the Charles G. Albom Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy.

Education

• Yale Law School
  J.D. 2009

• Stanford University
  B.A. in Economics and History 1998

Selected Scholarship

• Mass Surveillance as Racialized Control
  71 UCLA L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming) 2024