Nahal Kazemi

Nahal Kazemi joined the faculty of the Fowler School of Law as an assistant professor in 2023, after previously serving as visiting faculty and as an adjunct professor.  She previously taught the Davis Polk Asylum Law Clinic at Columbia Law School and was a teaching fellow in the Harvard University Government Department.  Professor Kazemi has offered courses relating to Torts, Civil Litigation Practice, and National Security Law

Professor Kazemi began her legal career as a litigator at Davis Polk & Wardwell’s New York City office and spent over eight years as a political-military affairs officer in the United States Foreign Service. Her postings included Casablanca, Morocco; Baghdad, Iraq; Budapest, Hungary; and Washington, DC.  Upon leaving government service, she returned to Orange County and joined Keller/Anderle LLP as Senior Counsel, where her practice focused on business litigation.  Her clients have included “Big Four” accounting firms, AMLAW 100 law firms, and Fortune 100 companies as well as government entities. 

Professor Kazemi’s scholarship focuses on rule of law issues, national security, and authoritarianism.  She has published in a number of academic journals on issues ranging from transitional justice and universal jurisdiction to birthright citizenship to disarmament and European security institutions.     

Professor Kazemi has served as presenter or moderator at conferences around the United States and abroad and has served numerous professional and community organizations, including as Vice President of Governance for the board of directors of WISEPlace, Orange County’s only homeless shelter serving unaccompanied women, and as President of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association’s Orange County Chapter.  She also served on the New York City Bar Association’s Committees on National Security Law and Military Law, and is an active contributor to the Pacific Council on International Policy.  

Professor Kazemi received her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard College and her law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was executive editor of the Harvard International Law Journal.  She is a member of the Bars of California and New York.

Courses Taught:

Torts I, Torts II, Civil Practice Foundations, and National Security Law.

Selected Publications:

• "Spies, Trolls, and Bots: Combatting Foreign Election Interference in the Marketplace of Ideas” Fordham Voting Rights and Democracy Forum (Forthcoming).
  
  
• The Non-Controversy Over Birthright Citizenship: Defending the Original Understanding of Jus Soli Citizenship,” 24 Chapman L. Rev. 1 (2020) (with M. Stock).
  
  
• "Justifications for Universal Jurisdiction: Shocking the Conscience Is not Enough,” 49 Tulsa L. Rev. 1 (2013).
  
  
• "Ill at Ease: The Precarious State of the Biological Weapons Convention’s Proposed Enforcement Regime,” 17 Florida J. of Int’l L. 137 (2005).