Dessie Otachliska

Dessie Otachliska is a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where her research explores how constitutional doctrine structures the conditions under which democracy functions and adapts. Her current project analyzes how courts shape the institutional and informational conditions of constitutional enforcement, particularly through doctrines governing standing, remedies, and interpretive method. It further examines how these legal forms interact with institutional alignment, epistemic fragmentation, and procedural deferral to enable democratic erosion without formal rupture.

Drawing on doctrinal analysis, comparative constitutionalism, and structural institutional theory, Dessie’s scholarship investigates how courts influence the distribution of accountability and the legibility of constitutional constraint in periods of institutional stress.

Dessie previously worked as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP. She holds a B.A. from Washington & Lee University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as a Managing Editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Prior to law school, Dessie worked in information services and data analytics.