Sukhatme, a distinguished legal scholar with expertise across multiple disciplines, joined Michigan Law from Georgetown University Law Center where he served as associate dean for research and academic programs, Anne Fleming Research Professor, and professor of law, and co-director of the Georgetown Law and Economics Workshop series. He also previously was an Andrew Carnegie Fellow for 2021–23, and the Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Scholar at the US Patent and Trademark Office. He received his PhD in Economics from Princeton University, where he was awarded the 2014 Towbes Prize for Outstanding Teaching. He received his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he served as Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Neel clerked for the Hon. Vaughn R. Walker on the US District Court for the Northern District of California and the Hon. Ann Claire Williams on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Sukhatme is licensed to practice law in Illinois (inactive) and California, and he previously worked at Latham & Watkins LLP. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering (highest honors) with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Illinois. Sukhatme also co-founded Spindrop, a music technology and Internet radio startup with a novel approach for automatically mixing songs.
In 2020, Sukhatme co-founded Free Our Vote, a non-partisan, non-profit organization of data scientists, economists, and legal researchers that seeks to restore voting rights for people with past felony convictions. These individuals are being denied their right to vote because they owe fines, fees, court costs, or restitution. Working with its partner Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Free Our Vote paid off fines/fees for over 1,000 people with past felony convictions in Florida in time for the November 2020 election. Working with its partner the Campaign Legal Center, Free Our Vote also reached out to tens of thousands more, notifying them that they did not appear to owe disqualifying fines/fees and were therefore free to vote in the election.
Sukhatme has published or forthcoming articles in the Harvard Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Cornell Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, American Law and Economics Review, International Review of Law and Economics, William & Mary Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, Houston Law Review, Harvard International Law Journal, The Regulatory Review, and Competition Policy International. His current research focuses on empirical patent law and law and economics.
