The University of Michigan Board of Regents has approved the appointment of Neel U. Sukhatme to serve as the David A. Breach Dean of Law and professor of law. Sukhatme, a distinguished legal scholar with expertise across multiple disciplines, joins U-M from Georgetown University Law Center.
The appointment, approved on March 20, is effective July 1, 2025, and runs for a five-year renewable term.
“Professor Sukhatme’s career has been defined by relentless innovation and a consistent dedication to the public good. I am so pleased to welcome him to Michigan,” said Laurie K. McCauley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
“His broad experience and dynamic leadership promise to bring an exciting new chapter to the Law School, where he aims to further elevate the institution’s reputation in legal education and research.”
At Georgetown University Law Center, Sukhatme has served as associate dean for research and academic programs and as an Anne Fleming Research Professor since 2023. He currently oversees numerous strategic initiatives to bolster research and academic programming, spearheads faculty hiring, and manages budgets for academic initiatives. He joined Georgetown as an associate professor in 2015.
“Michigan Law has a storied tradition of excellence, and I am delighted and honored to help lead this incredible community,” Sukhatme said. “I look forward to building on the Law School’s many strengths and helping it shape the future of legal education, practice, and interdisciplinary collaboration in a time of rapid technological change.”
Prior to his academic career, Sukhatme practiced as a patent attorney at Latham & Watkins LLP. He clerked on the US District Court for the Northern District of California and the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Sukhatme’s research spans criminology, patent law, public law, and election law. His scholarship has been published in the Duke Law Journal, Cornell Law Review, American Law and Economics Review, and Harvard Law Review, among others. His research on felony disenfranchisement has had significant policy implications, informing public debates and media coverage.
Beyond academia, Sukhatme served as the Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Scholar in the Office of the Chief Economist at the US Patent and Trademark Office. He also co-founded Free Our Vote, a nonprofit that works to restore voting rights, and Spindrop, a music technology AI startup.
He received a bachelor of science in computer engineering with highest honors from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2001. He earned a JD, cum laude, from Harvard University in 2005 and a PhD in economics from Princeton University in 2015.
