Prachi Mehta is the first fellow appointed to Texas Law’s recently launched Academic Fellowships program, a two-year program supporting emerging scholars who aspire to join the legal academy as tenure-track faculty members. Fellows benefit from faculty mentorship and dedicated time to advance their research agenda, develop scholarly writing, and refine their teaching skills.
“The Texas Law Academic Fellowship program provides emerging scholars with support and mentorship to enable them to develop essential research and pedagogical skills necessary for a successful career in legal academia,” says Melissa Wasserman, Texas Law’s associate dean for research and Charles Tilford McCormick Professor of Law. “Fellows enrich the law school not only by adding dynamic and engaged minds to our intellectual community but also by providing additional teaching expertise that benefits our students.”
Mehta earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA and doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Law in 2015, where she served as a research assistant to Wasserman. In her final year of law school, Mehta earned the Rickert Award for Excellence in Legal Writing, a prestigious honor at the school recognizing excellence in student achievement.
She brings extensive experience to her fellowship. From 2016-2017, Mehta clerked for Magistrate Judge K. Nicole Mitchell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler and practiced at Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago before and after her clerkship. She later worked as a litigation associate at firms in Redwood City, California, and opened her own practice in 2022.
“Texas Law is an extraordinary law school,” says Mehta. “With its visionary faculty, collegial environment, and deep investment in both student and faculty success, it is truly the best place to study the law.”
As an academic fellow and visiting lecturer, she will be developing a patents-focused research agenda and will teach a seminar next spring on patent and drug law. Mehta began her fellowship on May 1, 2025.
“Ms. Mehta has extensive patent and medical device litigation experience, and she will enhance our exceptional intellectual community, which has long been a hallmark of the law school,” says Wasserman.