Faculty Directory

Hayat Bearat

Bio

Hayat Bearat is a visiting associate professor and interim director of the Domestic Violence Institute. Prior to joining Northeastern, Professor Bearat was a visiting professor and director of the Family Violence Litigation Clinic at Albany Law School. Her scholarship focuses on child marriages in the United States and the obstacles immigrant survivors of domestic violence face in family court. Her most recent article, “I Thought I Would Have a Voice: Unveiling the Barriers Immigrant Survivors of Domestic Violence Face in the United States Courts,” is forthcoming in the The Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society.

Prior to becoming a clinical professor, Professor Bearat practiced in New York city for seven years, and spent five years in the Domestic Violence Law Unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group. Professor Bearat represented survivors of domestic violence in family and supreme court in cases involving divorce, child custody, child and spousal support, visitation and family offenses. Professor Bearat worked closely with clients from Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) immigrant communities to help clients understand and navigate the legal system while remaining sensitive to cultural differences and issues. Prior to joining NYLAG, Professor Bearat was a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, where she represented tenants in their housing court proceedings in the Bronx. 

Professor Bearat received her JD from New England Law | Boston in 2014, where she was on the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court and did research at the Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center for Human Rights on violence against women and girls in the MENA region and focusing specifically on early and forced marriages.