Neena Chaudhry

Neena K. Chaudhry is General Counsel and Senior Advisor for Education
at the National Women's Law Center, where she works to promote the rights of women and girls at school, with a particular emphasis on improving outcomes for girls at risk for dropout, including girls of color, pregnant and parenting students, girls who experience harassment, are excessively disciplined, or attend schools where the climate is not conducive to learning. Ms. Chaudhry participates in administrative and legislative advocacy, litigation and public education to protect the rights of women and girls to be free from sex discrimination in school, with a particular focus on Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Since joining the Center in September 1997, Ms. Chaudhry has served as counsel on several cases, including Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (in which Supreme Court established that schools have obligation under Title IX to address student-to-student sexual harassment), Communities for Equity v. Michigan High School Athletic Association (in which Sixth Circuit held that scheduling girls’ sports, but not boys’ sports, in nontraditional seasons violates Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause), National Wrestling Coaches Association et al. v. United States Department of Education (in which D.C. Circuit found that Title IX was not cause of schools’ decisions to drop men’s teams), Simpson v. University of Colorado (in which Tenth Circuit held that university violated Title IX through encouragement of sexual harassment/assault of female students by football players/recruits), and Hill v. Madison County School Board (in which Eleventh Circuit held that school’s decision to use 14-year-old girl as bait to catch student with known history of sexual harassment and its response to girl’s resulting rape was evidence of deliberate indifference that could violate Title IX).

Ms. Chaudhry has co-authored several publications, including When Girls Don’t Graduate, We All Fail; Finishing Last: Girls of Color and School Sports Opportunities; Check It Out: Is the Playing Field Level for Women and Girls at Your School?; Making the Grade on Women’s Health: A National and State-by-State Report Card; and Women in Construction: Still Breaking Ground. She has addressed gender equity in education issues in the media and before key national audiences throughout the U.S.

Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Chaudhry clerked for the Honorable Michael Daly Hawkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also served as a summer associate with Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C. and as a legislative assistant with The Council of The Great City Schools in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Chaudhry received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland at College Park with a major in economics and a minor in mathematics.

Follow Ms. Chaudhry on Twitter @NeenaChaudhry.

Expertise includes: women and girls in education, Title IX, sexual harassment in schools, equity in athletics.