Faculty Feature: Nila Bala

Professor Nila Bala is an expert on children and the law. She has published in the Michigan Law Review, the Boston College Law Review, the Federal Sentencing Reporter, and other prestigious journals. She presented her article “Parent-Child Privilege as Resistance” at the 2024 Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum. She also publishes essays in mainstream outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Before joining the King Hall faculty in 2023, Professor Bala was the Director of Legislative Initiatives and a Senior Attorney at the Policing Project at New York University School of Law. She had been the Assistant Director of Criminal Justice Policy at R Street Institute, where she led R Street’s criminal justice policy to advance reforms in juvenile and economic justice. Those policy positions followed her service as a public defender in Baltimore, Maryland, where she handled more than 1,000 cases and led a bail reform project.

Professor Bala clerked for Judge Keith P. Ellison of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, graduating with distinction. After completing her J.D. at Yale Law School, she became a Yale Public Interest Law Fellow and helped juveniles seal their records in Santa Clara County, California.

How did you become interested specifically in children's rights?

I have been interested and passionate about children's issues as long as I can remember. I was one of those kids that liked to babysit kids, even when I was a kid. I tutored on the side, even as early as junior high and high school. I liked being around kids and was always drawn to the fact it felt to me that children's voices weren't heard. Even though there are parents and the state supposedly looking out for children, it still felt like sometimes children’s interests were ignored. They're not a political voting bloc. They are at the mercy of whoever thinks they know their interests and whoever has power.

Similarly, one of the things that interested me was that children are powerless and vulnerable, and there were a lot of things which we would never tolerate doing to adults that we do to children. Take for example corporal punishment, which is still constitutional and, in many schools, is still used as a form of discipline, which is baffling.

After college, I actually had a chance to be a preschool teacher, and that cemented my interest in children's issues. In law school, I participated in the Advocacy for Children and Youth Clinic, where I represented children who had been abused or neglected. And again, that was really an eye-opening experience. So I had all these experiences, whether it was through jobs or just the way I saw the world that really made it clear that I just kept getting drawn back to issues concerning children.

Is there something you wish more people understood about children and the law?

I think what makes children and the law really interesting is that every issue that exists within the law pretty much affects children as well, but in a more complicated, nuanced way, usually because there are more parties at play. Adults are usually given the assumption of agency, autonomy, and the presumption that they would know their own interests. With children, they have their own interests, especially as they age into adolescence, but then you've also got the parent’s interests, the state’s interests, and there's just multiplicity of interests. But I think, going back to your original question of what I wish people knew, I wish, one, that people knew that every single thing, whether it's criminal law, contracts, technology issues, privacy issues, all of them come into play in children and the law, and that's what I think makes the discussion so rich.

And the second thing is that I wish we took children and the law more seriously. It doesn't receive the same level of serious attention as other scholarship, simply because it's about children. And so it's seen as a women's issue or a family issue. All of us obviously were children. Many of us have children or know children. The things that come up in children and the law are so significant. The other thing is it's such an important period developmentally. When we have trauma as adults, we often have more tools to process it. The trauma that children can go through, often at the hands of the state, sometimes at the hands of parents, can affect them for their entire lives. So if we can make policy changes that affect childhood, we have this opportunity to really impact our citizenry and our democracy in this larger way.

What drew you to legal academia?

My path was very circuitous and serendipitous. I really did not think I would be here. If you had asked me ten years ago, I really, really was not expecting to be a legal academic. I went to law school wanting to practice, wanting to have clients, and when I entered law school I was thinking about education advocacy, about criminal defense. I knew I wanted to do public interest work, and so I did not do any of the things in law school that academics do. I became a public defender, so I did the thing that I thought I would do. But being a public defender is extremely difficult. You hold people's lives in your hands every day, and the things that you say can affect their life and liberty in this really significant way. So I did take a step back, which coincided with when I was starting to grow my family, to doing policy work.

That actually was a turning point for me to revisit academia, because I always knew I loved teaching. I taught law students and undergraduates as a teaching fellow. So the teaching part, I knew I was going to love. The research and writing part, I was not as sure about. But when I went into the policy realm and I was doing so much research and writing, I started to realize I could do it and that I actually enjoyed it. Once I realized that, that's when I started thinking about being a professor. I knew it would be a long shot, but I just wanted to give myself the opportunity, the chance to just at least try. And if it didn't work out, I could just do the policy work I've been doing and I'd be happy doing that. But I just thought, wouldn't it be amazing to be able to teach students and get to think and imagine and write about whatever I desire?

What might your students be surprised to learn about you?

When I was a student and I looked at my professors, I really thought of them as on this other plane. If you had asked me what kind of law students they had been, I probably would have guessed that they were stellar law students and they always knew they wanted to be professors. Neither of those things is true for me. I spent a lot of time doing other things in law school, like singing in my Slavic a cappella group.

I really empathize with those students who feel like outsiders, who don't feel like they fit into law school, and who may not really love law school all the time. Because that was me. I didn't feel like I fit in, and I didn't really enjoy the law just for the sake of the law. I really saw it as a tool to help my clients. And so I think, compared to a lot of folks in academia, I may be more practical. And I'm also very sympathetic to law students who are trying to figure out this thing that is law school. I came from a family without any lawyers. And I was trying to figure things out. That is okay. And so if you're looking up at the professors, and you're like, oh, my gosh, these people know what they're doing, I think one thing that might surprise them is that I often feel like I'm figuring it out still to this day.

Do you have any hobbies or notable interests outside of your law career?

I definitely had more hobbies before I had kids. But I'll tell you the things that I still sort of do and definitely did a lot before. The main thing is singing, which may not really surprise the students. I do sing for them sometimes in class to keep class lively. But, like I said, I joined the women’s Slavic a cappella group in law school. And then I just kept doing it even after I graduated. I also grew up singing Indian classical music. I still sing all the time, but mostly just for myself and to my kids around the house or in the car. I love singing. That's probably my main hobby.

I also love spending time with my family. We do a lot of hiking. I love going to the ocean. And I love reading for fun, too. 

What do you most enjoy about teaching and what do you hope your students gain from your courses?

I most enjoy the students. The students at King Hall are incredible. They are not just brilliant and smart, but they're kind. I really realized that and appreciated it my first semester teaching, which was just a year ago. I made lots of mistakes, but I feel like they were just so gracious about it. They were kind of along with me for the ride.

I love when they come to me and they may not understand something right away, and then we can work through it together and we can get to understanding. That's a really amazing journey. I love watching students who are anxious or worried or underconfident about their abilities figure things out and succeed. I think that's one of the most rewarding things about being a teacher.

What do I hope they take out of the classes? The number one thing is actually just a feeling of confidence and strength and resilience and belief in themselves, because I think the actual content will come. So even if they don't get it in the class during that particular semester, I have faith in their abilities, especially when they become a lawyer. Whether they're litigating or doing transactional work, they're going to figure it out because they're smart. And so mainly it's so that they start to understand this language of the law and they feel some confidence and competence. My goal of course is that when they see it on the bar or they see it in practice, it’s not the first time they're seeing it and that they can remember, oh, Professor Bala talked about this. And they have some memory of it at least, which gives them some confidence on at least where to look.

I always say law school is not about memorizing all the material and knowing all the rules. Because you're going to forget that. I can almost guarantee it. But it's about learning the language and knowing where to look when you do need to remember something. And that is a really valuable skill that I hope they take away. And I hope they also gain a community. Like I said, the King Hall students are really wonderful. And one thing I've noticed is that they seem to be really good friends. If they leave with a community and network, that is a huge gain.

Of what are you proudest?

I'll say two things. One is I still look back and I am just flabbergasted that I got this job, and so I will say I'm very proud of myself for getting this and putting myself out there. I don't think I've ever applied for anything that was harder to get in my life. It doesn't matter how smart you are or how hard you try, it's a crap shoot. I feel so grateful and blessed that the faculty considered me two years ago and gave me a chance, even though I don't have the traditional profile of the person who becomes an academic because I didn't know I wanted to be one at first.

And I'm also really proud of my kids. They are really amazing little human beings. I don't think I can take that much credit because I really do think kids are kind of who they are. And our job is just to scaffold that and kind of watch that and be there for that and help them become the best version of themselves. But they are really, really cool people, and it's fun to watch them discover things for the first time and gain competence in things. My son just learned how to ride a bike this summer. That was amazing to watch. And to see how he practiced and practiced. He had so much pride in himself when he got that skill. So I'm really proud of them and who they are slowly becoming over time.

Do you have one piece of advice for King Hall law students?

My main piece of advice is not to tie how much they value themselves or the meaning of their life to anything that has to do with law school. They are valuable and lovable and worthy, just as they are. They were that way before they came to law school. They continue to be worthy throughout law school. Nothing in law school is as important as their well-being, their friends, their family.

It can feel that way when you're in law school. You can get tunnel vision about what matters. Especially with the overemphasis we place on grades and on that final exam and the stress that accompanies it. Law school unfortunately has this way of making you forget who you are and why you came there. And so I would just urge them to remember why they came there in the first place, not to lose sight of that and who they were when they came in the first place. And to stay connected with that and stay connected with the people that make them feel good about themselves. Because they should feel good about themselves. They are incredible people.

Check out last month's Faculty Feature here.