Ayesha Bell Hardaway’s research focuses on criminal law, policing, and the intersection of race and the law. Her most recent work examines legal effort to remedy police misconduct and abuses through federal intervention and community oversight. Her scholarship also explores the ways in which police associations can impact and impede efforts to end police abuses. She is currently working on a research project that seeks to provide a comprehensive examination of the political, socio-economic and racial conditions that support police misconduct through collective bargaining rights and lobbying.
Professor Hardaway’s academic career also aligns with her strong commitment to serve the community. She has represented individuals who are unable to hire private counsel as a clinician in Case Law School’s Health Clinic, Civil Litigation Clinic and Criminal Clinic. As Director of the Criminal Clinic, Professor Hardaway uses a client-centered pedagogical framework to instruct and supervise third-year law students on handling misdemeanor cases from arraignment to trial.
As Director of the Social Justice Law Center and of the University’s Social Justice Institute, Professor Hardaway serves students and the broader community in the exploration of pressing social justice issues through research, community conversations, guest lectures and curricular offerings.
Professor Hardaway’s expertise and analysis have been featured on-air and in print. Her influential voice has been featured on CNN, including The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, ESPN, USA Today, Associated Press, Rolling Stone Magazine, NY Times and US News and World Report.
Before joining Case’s Law School faculty, Professor Hardaway served as trial and National Coordinating Counsel in the Litigation Department at Tucker Ellis LLP. She also worked as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office at the start of her career.
She is a graduate of the College of Wooster and Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Teaching Information
Courses Taught
External Appointments
Director Social Justice Institute