Current and Former Lewis Fellows
Since 1993, Reginald F. Lewis Fellows have gone on to amazing careers in the legal academy. Among the alumni and alumnae of the program are tenured professors at the top law schools in the United States. The following table provides detailed information about the current work of former fellows.
2020-21 Reginald F. Lewis Fellow
Zahra Takhshid
Zahra Takhshid is the Lewis Fellow and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. She is interested in teaching and writing about contracts, torts, digital privacy, and technology and the law. Part of her scholarship explores how to use tools from torts and contracts in resolving challenges with emerging technological developments. A second strand of her interest is Islamic law, particularly private Islamic law. Zahra is also an affiliate with the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Zahra’s research has been published or is forthcoming in Cardozo Law Review, Minnesota Law Review Online, Buffalo Law Review, UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law, among others. She has contributed to the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology Digest and Harvard Islamic Law Blog.
Zahra holds a doctorate (S.J.D.) from Fordham Law School. In her doctoral dissertation, she analyzed the role of public policy and unconscionability in negligence lawsuits that involve the express assumption of risk defense. At Fordham she was also a fellow at the Institute on Religion, Law, & Lawyer’s Work. Zahra earned an LL.M. from the George Washington University Law School where she was the recipient of full tuition Thomas Buergenthal Scholarship. She also has an LL.M. (Summa Cum Laude) and an LL.B. (Magna Cum Laude) from University of Tehran School of Law and Political Science.
She is a native speaker of Farsi and proficient in French and Arabic. Zahra also has basic knowledge of the programming languages Swift and Python. She is licensed to practice law in the State of New York and Iran.
| Lewis Fellow | Fellowship Year(s) | Current Position |
| Zahra Takhshid | 2019-2021 | Reginald F. Lewis Fellow |
| Nikolas Bowie | 2017-2018 | Assistant Professor of Law Harvard Law School |
| Duane Rudolph | 2015-2017 | Associate Professor of Law University of Maine School of Law |
| K. Sabeel Rahman | 2012-2014 | Associate Professor of Law Brooklyn Law School |
| Abbye J. Atkinson | 2009-2010 | Assistant Professor of Law UC Berkeley |
| Vincent Chiao | 2008-2010 | Associate Professor University of Toronto |
| Eleanor Marie Brown | 2007-2009 | Professor of Law and International Affairs Penn State Law |
| Hilary C. Robinson | 2006-2007 | Associate Professor of Law and Sociology Northeastern University School of Law |
| Angela M. Banks | 2004-2006 | Charles J. Merriam Distinguished Professor of Law Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law |
| Timothy William Waters | 2003-2004 | Professor of Law and Val Nolan Faculty Fellow Indiana University Maurer School of Law |
| Gavin Clarkson | 2002-2003 | Professor of Law University of Houston Law Center |
| Cristina M. Rodríguez | 2001-2002 | Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law Yale Law School |
| Laura Nyantung Beny | 2000-2001 | Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law University of Michigan Law School |
| Stephen M. Rich | 2000-2001 | Professor of Law University of Southern California School of Law |
| Kenneth W. Mack | 1999-2000 | Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law Harvard Law School |
| Lino Mendiola, III | 1998-1999 | Partner Eversheds-Sutherland, LLP |
| Marc Spindelman | 1997-1998 | Isadore and Ida Topper Professor of Law Ohio State University Moritz College of Law |
| Ralph Richard Banks | 1996-1997 | Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law Stanford Law School |
| Alexa J. Smith | 1995-1996 | Major Gifts Officer Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) |
| Sydney Patel | 1994-1995 | |
| Richard Thompson Ford | 1993-1994 | George E. Osborn Professor of Law Stanford Law School |
Learn more about the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship for Law Teaching