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Dessie Otachliska is a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School, where their research explores constitutional doctrine, structures, conditions of democracy, and its functions. Dessie's current project analyzes how courts shape institutional and informational conditions for constitutional enforcement, particularly focusing on doctrines governing standing, remedies, and interpretive methods. Further, Dessie examines how legal forms interact with institutional alignment, epistemic fragmentation, and procedural deferral, enabling democratic erosion amid formal rupture. Through doctrinal analysis, comparative constitutionalism, and structural institutional theory, Dessie's scholarship investigates the courts' influence on the distribution of accountability and legibility against constitutional constraints during periods of institutional stress. Before joining academia, Dessie worked as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP, and holds a B.A. from Washington & Lee University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where they served as Managing Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP • New York, NY
Worked as a litigation associate, focusing on various aspects of law.
Latham & Watkins LLP • New York, NY
Worked as a litigation associate, managing cases and legal strategies.
Applied for under 'Department of Law', 'Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law', 'Department of Constitutional Law', 'Department of Japanese Legal Studies', and 'Department of Human Rights'.