About Patricia L.
Patricia L. Bellia is a law professor whose career has moved between the courtroom, the federal government, and the academy. She earned her A.B. from Harvard University in 1991 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995. Those credentials set the stage for a string of prestigious clerkships and a short tenure in government service before she turned to teaching.
Fresh from Yale, she began her post-graduate legal work as a clerk to Judge José A. Cabranes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1995. The following year she clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1997 she served as a lawyer-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Those roles exposed her to high-level federal litigation and the inner workings of government legal advice.
In 2000 she joined Notre Dame Law School as an assistant professor of law. She moved through the faculty ranks over the next several years, becoming an associate professor in 2003 and receiving tenure as the John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Law in 2005. In 2007 she held a visiting professorship at the University of Virginia School of Law and was named a Notre Dame Presidential Fellow the same year. Her time at Notre Dame has combined classroom teaching, scholarship, and participation in law school governance.
Bellia is admitted to practice in several federal jurisdictions, including the 6th Circuit, the District of Columbia, and the 1st Circuit. Those admissions reflect the national footprint of the courts where she has worked and litigated in various capacities, and they complement her academic role by keeping her connected to federal appellate practice.
Her work as a scholar and teacher has been shaped by her early experiences in the judiciary and in government. Colleagues and former students note a faculty role that blends rigorous analysis with practical perspectives gained from clerkships and service at the Department of Justice. She has continued to publish and teach while taking on institutional responsibilities at Notre Dame Law School.
She remains a member of the Notre Dame Law School faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where her current work centers on teaching, legal scholarship, and mentoring law students.
