Catherine Hardee

Biography

Catherine Hardee’s research and teaching interests are in the fields of business law and torts. Professor Hardee’s current research focuses on questions of corporate morality, including how to reconcile state corporate law with morality-based rights claims made by those who own and operate corporations and broader questions regarding the normative value of corporate morality. She is also researching the way the law can encourage, or discourage, the use of bicycles as a mode of transportation. Professor Hardee's work has has been published in the Boston College Law Review, the Washington Law Review, the Kentucky Law Journal, the Pepperdine Law Review, the Willamette Law Review, and the New York University Law Review.

Prior to joining the California Western faculty, Professor Hardee was a Forrester Fellow at Tulane University Law School where she taught Legal Research and Writing.  Professor Hardee previously spent eight years as a litigator in New York City working as an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Heller Ehrman, as well as a litigation boutique.  Her practice focused on mergers and acquisition litigation, securities litigation, and banking law.  Professor Hardee worked on several high profile litigation matters including JPMorgan’s buyout of Bear Stearns, the tax investigation into UBS’s cross-border business, and the Parmalat securities litigation class action.  She also worked on many pro bono matters including representing asylum seekers and women seeking access to public benefits.  In 2009, Professor Hardee was awarded the New York State Bar Association’s Best Brief Award for Excellence in Commercial Brief Writing.

After graduating magna cum laude from New York University Law School, Professor Hardee clerked for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  She received her undergraduate degree cum laude from The University of Washington.  Before law school, Professor Hardee was a volunteer with the Peace Corps in Armenia, teaching English and working on projects to advance gender equality for women and girls.  When not at the law school, Professor Hardee can be found hiking with her two rescue dogs, enjoying San Diego, or out travelling the world on her bicycle.