Priya Baskaran

Education

• B.A., New York University
• J.D., University of Michigan
• M.U.P., University of Michigan
• LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center

Biography

Priya Baskaran is Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Law Clinic (EILC) at the West Virginia University College of Law. As Director of the Clinic, Professor Baskaran provides pro bono legal support to small businesses, community organizations, nonprofits, and individual entrepreneurs across the state. Under her leadership, the EILC has expanded its mission to include educational workshops and community-based initiatives focused on economic development.

Her recent projects include toolkits and programs on raising community-based capital, developing rural broadband cooperatives, and combating predatory “rent-to-own” schemes that often target disaster victims in West Virginia. In addition to leading the EILC, Professor Baskaran teaches Business Organizations and other transactional law courses.

Professor Baskaran’s scholarship, advocacy, and teaching emphasize expanding economic opportunity for vulnerable communities through transactional lawyering. She is a recognized expert in employment-related collateral consequences in West Virginia and has testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In partnership with Legal Aid, she helped launch the statewide “Community Economic Development Law Project,” which enhances legal access for low-income entrepreneurs and community organizations.

Before joining WVU, she was a Visiting Professor and Supervising Attorney at Georgetown University Law Center's Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic. She also served as Staff Attorney in the Community and Economic Development Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, where she worked with nonprofits and small businesses in Detroit and Washington, D.C. Professor Baskaran has further worked on international environmental and land use issues in Cambodia through a fellowship with the East West Management Institute.

Publications

• Respect the Hustle: Returning Citizens, Necessity Entrepreneurship, and Social Enterprise Strategies, 78 Maryland Law Review (2019 forthcoming)
• The Economic Justice Imperative for Lawyers in “Trump Country”, 8 Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice (forthcoming 2018)
• Transactional Clinics as Change Agents in the Trump Era: Lessons from Two Contexts, 26.2 Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law 335 (2017)
• Experiential Learning through Popular Multimedia (co-authored book chapter, forthcoming December 2018), available at popularmedia.law.wvu.edu
• Worker Cooperatives: An Introduction to Worker Cooperatives and Their Role in the Changing Economy, 24.2 ABA Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law (2016)

Selected Presentations

• The Urgency of Poverty – An Economic Justice Symposium, University of Tennessee Law School, October 24, 2018 (symposium organizer)
• Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights – West Virginia Advisory Committee: Criminal Record’s Impact on Occupational Licensing, July 19, 2018
• AALS Clinical Conference – Plenary II: Identifying and Pursuing Interest Convergence Strategies in the Representation of Our Clients and the Pursuit of Building Community, May 1, 2018

Teaching Experience

• Entrepreneurship & Innovation Law Clinic, WVU College of Law
• Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic, Georgetown University Law Center, 2013–2016
• Community Economic Development Clinic, University of Michigan Law School, 2011–2013

Professional Experience

• Visiting Professor, Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic, Georgetown University Law Center, 2013–2016
• Staff Attorney, Community Economic Development Clinic, University of Michigan Law School, 2011–2013
• Law Fellow, East West Management Institute, 2009–2011