Law Professor, Ofodile Returns To Harvard As Senior Fellow

Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government has named E.J. Ball Professor of Law, Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile a Senior Fellow of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government for the 2021-22 academic year.

The mission of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government is to advance the state of knowledge and policy analysis concerning some of society’s most challenging problems at the interface of the public and private sectors.

At the Kennedy School of Government, Professor Ofodile’s research will focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate accountability, and corporate governance more broadly. She will also spend time teaching and mentoring students.

One of Ofodile’s goals is to use her time at the Kennedy School to broaden knowledge about the emerging and changing legal framework for CSR and the positive as well as negative impact of business operations on human rights and sustainability across global value chains. Ofodile also hopes to stimulate debate about how businesses in all economic sectors can be powerful forces of change and sustainable development.

Professor Ofodile holds the E.J. Ball Endowed Chair at the University of Arkansas School of Law. She previously held the Arkansas Bar Foundation Endowed Chair at the same university. She is also an affiliated professor of African and African American Studies, at the University of Arkansas’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Ofodile’s teaching, research, and scholarship focuses on international investment law, intellectual property law, international dispute settlement, international trade law, agriculture and food law, corporate social responsibility, as well as technology and the law.

The Dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law where Professor Ofodile teaches had nothing but praises for Professor Ofodile.

“This prestigious appointment is a wonderful recognition of professor Ofodile’s work, and I could not be prouder to have her on our faculty,” said Dean Margaret Sova McCabe in a press release.

“Her research interest and work showcase her impressive standing in the global community, and significantly enhance School of Law’s global reach,” Dean McCabe added.

Professor Ofodile serves on many international bodies. She is on the Editorial Advisory Committee of International Legal Materials, a publication of the American Society of International Law, and currently serves as a book review editor for The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals. She is an active member of the American Bar Association Section of International law and has served the organization in numerous leadership positions including as co-chair of the International Investment and Development Committee, co-chair of the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, and vice-chair of the International Intellectual Property Committee.

Professor Ofodile has also served as the Secretary General of the African Society of International Law.

A recognized expert in intellectual property law, Professor Ofodile routinely advises businesses and governments on issues relating to intellectual property rights. She is a two-time recipient of the Women’s Giving Circle Award to support a patent law bootcamp that Professor Ofodile founded and hosts called “Patent Boot Camp for Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)”.

She holds several certificates of training from the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, including certificate of training in ‘Workshop for Mediators in Intellectual Property Disputes,’ ‘Advanced Workshop for Mediators in Intellectual Property Dispute,’ ‘Advanced Workshop on Domain Name Dispute Resolution,’ and ‘Intellectual Property Arbitration Workshop.’

Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government routinely attracts high ranking global leaders as senior fellows. Among the other senior fellows of 2021-22 cohort are: Marlene Amstad, vice-chair of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority; Hon. Sajid Javid, Member of the British Parliament and former chancellor of the exchequer of the United Kingdom; George Chouliarakis, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers of Greece; Patrick Okigbo III, Founder and Principal Partner of Nextier; Jeffrey Fuhrer, former executive vice president and senior policy adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; and Aparna Mathur, senior research manager in economics at Amazon.

Professor Ofodile, whose father is late Professor Dennis Ewelukwa of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka Law Faculty, is from Anambra State. She attended Federal Government Girls College Onitsha. Professor Ofodile obtained her Bachelor of Law degree (LL.B.) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, her Master of Law (LL.M.) degree in International Business Law from the University College London, another LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and a Doctor of Juridical Science degree (S.J.D.) degree also from Harvard Law School.

At the Nigerian Law School, Professor Ofodile was the ‘Best Graduating Female Student of the Year’ and walked away with The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Nigeria) prize for academic excellence.

Professor Ofodile is married to Anthony Ofodile and they are blessed with three wonderful children.