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Jennifer Drobac
Jennifer Drobac

Visiting Scholar
January - May 2018

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Professor Dr. Jennifer A. Drobac joined the faculty of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 2001. In 2017, she was a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, UK and before that was a 2015 Fulbright Specialist at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, India. She was a Visiting Scholar at University of California, Berkeley, The Center for the Study of Law and Society in 2010.

While a 2018 Visiting Scholar at The Petrie-Flom Center, Professor Drobac will be researching and writing a new book, THE MYTH OF CONSENT: LAW & THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR (with Professor Oliver Goodenough) (contract for publication with Cambridge University Press, anticipated 2019). This monograph will analyze the neuroscientific and psychosocial aspects of decision making by vulnerable adults and offer legal solutions for civil law reform.

Her scholarly work has been published in a variety of law reviews, journals, and books. In 2005, she finished her first textbook, Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases and Theory. A new edition of that text is expected in 2019. Since the breaking of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal, she has given more than 50 interviews to media, including the New York Times, The Washington Post, MarketWatch, Time, Politico, the Vox, WBUR, and numerous other PBS radio stations (visit her faculty profile for complete details). In 2016, Chicago University Press published Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers: Adolescent Development, Discrimination and Consent Law, Professor Drobac’s authoritative treatment of teenage neurological and psychosocial development and the law of consent. This book has been rated “Essential,” the highest rating by Choice, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Professor Drobac engages in legal service work nationally and locally. She became an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) in 2012 and has served on the Executive Board of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Family and Juvenile Law since 2009. She is a member of the Indiana University Faculty Council Executive Committee for the Task Force on Sexual Assault, Prevention, Intervention, and Response (SAPIR). Between 2002 and 2011, she served on The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Board of Trustees, acting as Vice Chair for the last four years of service. In 2000, she worked on the Indiana Legal Ethics Committee—Ethics 2000, Conflict of Interest Sub-Committee, to update Indiana’s professional ethics for lawyers.

Jennifer Drobac received her AB (with History Department Honors and Academic Distinction), AM (History), JD, and JSD degrees from Stanford University. She also received a Certificate as a 2009 Admitted Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Neuroscience & Society, Neuroscience Boot Camp. Following law school, Drobac clerked for the Honorable Barefoot Sanders, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. From 1992 to 2001, she practiced law in California, focusing on employment discrimination law and litigation. From 1997 to 2000, she served as a lecturer at Stanford Law School.

Professor Drobac’s work has been recognized with several honors and awards. In 2010, she received the Indiana University Sylvia E. Bowman Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2005 Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award. She was named a John S. Grimes Fellow in 2006, 2009, and 2017, and a Dean’s Fellow in recognition of scholarly excellence in 2005-2006.

Learn more about Professor Drobac on her faculty profile!