Bijal Shah's teaching and scholarly interests lie in the areas of administrative law, structural constitutional law, immigration law (including "crimmigration"), international human rights law and LGBT law.  Her work appears in publications including the Harvard Law Review, Yale Journal on Regulation, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, and the New York University (NYU) Law Review Online, among others.  Prior to joining the Sandra Day O' Connor College of Law in 2016, Professor Shah was an Acting Assistant Professor at the NYU School of Law.       

Before entering the academy, Professor Shah was Associate General Counsel for the Department of Justice / Executive Office for Immigration Review.  In this position, she wrote immigration regulations, legislation and national policies on behalf of the General Counsel, the Director’s Office, and Congress.  Earlier in her career, Professor Shah served as a Presidential Management Fellow in the Department of Homeland Security / U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where her primary responsibilities included ensuring high-quality refugee and asylum adjudications nationwide and in the Middle East.  While in this fellowship, she also worked for immigration and appropriations offices at the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, oversaw State Department-sponsored anti-trafficking programs in the Middle East and South Asia, and litigated criminal and other immigration matters in the federal courts of appeal.  

Professor Shah is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where she was a senior editor on the Yale Law Journal and a Yale University Kirby Human Rights Fellow.  Professor Shah is also a graduate of the Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.  Immediately after completing her law and graduate studies, Professor Shah was a Harvard University Sinclair Kennedy Fellow, during which time she worked with the Mauritian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development on women's human rights and development issues in Mauritius.  Before entering law school, Professor Shah was an investment banker at UBS PaineWebber.