Wendy A. Bach teaches and writes at the intersection of poverty law, criminal law, social welfare provision, law and society, and community lawyering. She has been with UT Law since fall 2010. From 2005 to 2010, she taught at the City University of New York School of Law.  In 2023 she co-founded and now co-directs the Appalachian Justice Research Center, a transdisciplinary research center that works alongside communities in Appalachia and the Mountain South to produce innovative, accessible, and transformative research that can drive action on the most pressing community justice issues in the region.

Before entering the academy, she was director of the Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City and a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Brooklyn. Professor Bach has dedicated her career to representing children and families in poor communities in a variety of legal settings.

She has been published in the William and Mary, Wisconsin, Brooklyn, and Michigan Law reviews, The Florida Tax Review and The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. Her first book Prosecuting Poverty, Criminalizing Care was published in 2022 by Cambridge University Press. She is currently leading a national study of the criminalization of pregnancy after the Supreme Court’s decision overruling Roe v. Wade. As a child of Jewish European immigrants, Bach is a perennial expat in communities where she lives, but she is thrilled to live, work, and be in community in Central Appalachia.

• Education & Experience
• Publications

J.D, 1996, New York University Law School

B.A. and M.A., 1991, University of Pennsylvania

Curriculum Vitae

Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

Full list of SSRN scholarly papers