Education

M.A., Georgetown University
J.D., UCLA School of Law
Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley

Biography

Professor Hendley's research focuses on legal and economic reform in the former Soviet Union. Following in the Wisconsin "law in action" tradition, her research explores how ordinary Russians experience law. 

Her current research explores the role of lawyers in Russia. It is grounded in a 2016 survey of over 2000 law students on the cusp of graduation that was funded by the National Science Foundation. She has published over 10 articles that delve into various aspects of the Russian legal profession. She is leading a collaborative project on Lawyers and Democratic Decline (LADD). LADD brings together scholars who are studying how lawyers in countries experiencing democratic decline or full-fledged authoritarianism are coping. It includes scholars working on lawyers in Russia, China, Poland, Brazil, and the U.S.

Together with Peter Solomon of the University of Toronto, she published a monograph -- Russian Courts (Oxford University Press, 2023). It details the evolution of courts in Russia over the past century and analyzes their handling of criminal, civil, economic, and administrative cases. It also explains the phenomenon of political cases.

Her monograph, Everyday Law in Russia (Cornell University Press, 2017), is based on participant-observation research in the recently-created justice-of-the-peace courts as well as on focus groups conducted in the summers of 2007 and 2008.  Her research documents the dualistic nature of the Russian legal system and on the willingness of Russians to make use of the formal legal system.  This project was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Council on Eurasian and East European Research, and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, as well as a Fulbright research award for the 2011-12 academic year, which she spent in Russia. 

During the 1990s, Professor Hendley was involved  in an inter-disciplinary project aimed at understanding how business is conducted in Russia and the role of law in business transactions and corporate governance. This project was funded by the World Bank, the National Science Foundation, and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research.

She has received a WARF Named Pofessorship, the Kellett Mid-Career Award, the Vilas Associate Award, and a Romnes Fellowship.  She teaches Contracts, as well as courses related to her interest in Russia, such as Comparative Law, and Russian Law.  She holds a joint appointment in the Political Science department, where she regularly teaches Russian Politics, Law, Society and Politics, Global Access to Justice, and Comparative Legal Institutions.

Professor Hendley has served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank in their work on legal reform in Russia. She has held visiting scholar appointments at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Princeton University, and the Kellog Institute for International Studies (Notre Dame University). She previously served as the Director of the Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia, which receives Title VI funding from the U.S. Department of Education.