Debra Pogrund Stark
Professor of Law
Contact
Building & Room:
C-929
Address:
300 S. State Street, Chicago, Illinois 60604
Office Phone:
Email:
CV Download:
Related Sites:
About
Professor Debra Pogrund Stark received her B.A. from Brandeis University, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa; her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, cum laude; and her certificate in mediation training from Northwestern University.
She joined the faculty of The Law School in 1994 after eight years in private practice with Katten Muchin. Her two primary areas of expertise are the legal system’s response to domestic violence and real estate law.
Professor Stark examines the legal system’s response to domestic violence through empirical and comparative law-based research. This work has culminated in three extensive law review articles that propose critically needed law reforms: “What’s Law Got To Do With It? Confronting Judicial Nullification of Domestic Violence Remedies,” 10 Northwestern J.L. & Soc. Pol’y 130 (2015); “Seeing the Wrecking Ball in Motion: Ex Parte Protection Orders and the Realities of Domestic Violence,” 32 Wisconsin J.L. Gender & Soc’y 13 (2017); and “Properly Accounting for Domestic Violence in Child Custody Cases: An Evidence-Based Analysis and Reform Proposal,” 26 Michigan Journal of Gender & Law 1 (2019). Her scholarship has been cited and relied upon by courts in Illinois and other states, by litigants in appellate cases, and by other scholars, contributing to stronger protections for domestic violence survivors and their children.
Motivated by her desire to use the law to protect vulnerable individuals, and drawing on her research and law firm experience, Professor Stark founded the law school’s Domestic Violence Clinical Advocacy Program (2012–2015) and the Family Law & Domestic Violence Clinic (2015–2020) and she served as director of both. The clinic she designed and led received the Illinois State Bar Association’s “Excellence in Legal Education” Award in 2016 for its innovative training methods, comprehensive legal services to survivors and their children, and its law reform initiatives.
Professor Stark currently teaches “Domestic Violence Law, Policy, & Community Engagement,” a course she created to continue some of the prior work of the DV Clinic. In this course, students study the same topics formerly taught in the clinic and complete projects with real-world impact, such as law reform initiatives, community education programs, and the development of innovative training materials. One project from this course led to enactment of the Summary of Rights for Safer Homes Act, effective January 1, 2026. Professor Stark and some of her students will next work to ensure that Illinois landlords comply with this new law so that survivor-tenants are informed of, and able to exercise, the sometimes life-saving special housing rights for DV survivors under Illinois law.
Professor Stark frequently lectures and presents on domestic violence and the legal system’s response and has served on numerous advisory and working groups addressing domestic violence. In 2025, she was appointed to the Education, Learning, Child and Family Well-Being Working Group of the University of Illinois System’s Institute of Government & Public Affairs, where she looks forward to interdisciplinary collaborations on improving the legal system’s response to domestic violence.
Before focusing on domestic violence, Professor Stark was a nationally recognized expert in property and real estate law. She chaired the American Association of Law Schools’ Real Estate Section, chaired the Foreclosure and Related Remedies Committee of the Real Estate Section of the American Bar Association, and authored or co-authored four books and numerous law review articles in the field. A highlight of her real estate scholarship was her collaboration with Dr. Jessica Choplin, with whom she co-authored more than a dozen interdisciplinary law review and peer-reviewed articles—several supported by a National Science Foundation grant—examining consumer vulnerability to fraud in home lending and developing strategies to better protect consumers from losing their homes or their equity in their homes.