Professor Suzette Malveaux

Suzette Malveaux is Professor of Law and former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. Professor Malveaux also served as Director of the Law & Public Policy Program in the fall of 2008. She teaches Civil Procedure, Complex Litigation, Civil Rights Law and Fair Employment Law. She co-authored Class Actions and Other Multi-Party Litigation; Cases and Materials (West, 2006, 2012), and has published numerous law review articles that explore the intersection of civil procedure and civil rights. She has presented at dozens of conferences in this area. Malveaux started her teaching career at the University of Alabama School of Law in 2003 and joined the Columbus School of Law in 2006. She was a visiting professer at the University of Iowa College of Law in the fall of 2017 and Washington and Lee University School of Law in the fall of 2014. Prior to academia, she was a class action litigation specialist who appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court and argued before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Professor Malveaux graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. She earned her J.D. from NYU School of Law, where she was an Associate Editor of the Law Review, a Root-Tilden Scholar and a Center for International Law Fellow. At NYU, she was awarded the NAACP LDF Earl Warren Scholarship, the American Association of University Women Fellowship, the Vanderbilt Medal for “extraordinary contributions” to the law school, and the Judge Rose L. & Herbert Rubin Law Review Prize, for making the “greatest contribution in public, international or commercial law.” Upon graduation, she clerked for the federal district court (SDNY) for the Honorable Robert L. Carter.

Professor Malveaux has been consulted by the media to provide commentary on various legal issues involving the Supreme Court, the civil legal system and civil rights. Her appearances include CNN, MSNBC, Fox News 5, Al Jazeera English and the PBS NewsHour. She has been interviewed by various media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The National Law Journal, and the Congressional Quarterly, and her work has been recommended by various blogs.

As a class action specialist, she has tackled complex legal matters in high profile civil rights cases, at the federal trial and appellate court levels. For example, she represented over 1.5 million women in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the largest employment discrimination class action in U.S. history to date. She practiced law in Washington, DC at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C. and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs.

For six years, Professor Malveaux served as pro bono counsel to the plaintiffs in Alexander v. State of Oklahoma, a suit filed against Tulsa by victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. As part of a team of attorneys, she represented the riot victims before the U.S. federal courts, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States) and the U.S. House of Representatives. Her work has been featured in various documentaries and news outlets.

Professor Malveaux enjoys participating in races for various charities and traveling internationally.