Faculty & Administration View All
Patricia A. O’Hara
Professor of Law
Office Number: 1117 Eck Hall of Law
Telephone: 574.631.5344
Email: Patricia.A.O’Hara.3@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Julie Shook
Patricia A. O’Hara joined the faculty of the Law School in 1981, received tenure in 1987 and became a full professor in 1990. That same year she was elected by the University’s Board of Trustees as vice president for student affairs, the first woman to serve as an officer of the University. As vice president for student affairs, Professor O’Hara had oversight responsibility for eleven departments responsible for student life outside the classroom, as well as the University’s undergraduate residence halls and graduate student housing. In 1999 she was appointed dean of the Law School and served in that capacity for ten years. During her tenure as dean, the $57.6M construction of Eck Hall of Law and renovation of Biolchini Hall were conceived, designed, and funded.
Following a sabbatical, Professor O’Hara will return to the faculty during the 2010-2011 academic year. Her areas of academic interest include business associations and securities regulation, as well as higher education in general and legal education in particular as informed by her administrative experience.
Professor O’Hara is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admissions Council through 2010-2011 and currently chairs the Test Development and Research Committee of that organization. During her tenure as dean, she chaired the Section for the Law School Dean of the American Association of Law Schools in 2008, co-chaired the Dean’s Workshop at the 2007 mid-year meeting of the American Bar Association, chaired the Nominating Committee of the American Association of Law Schools in 2005-2006 and served on a variety of other committees for both organizations, including the AALS Committee on Admission to the Bar and planning committees for the ABA’s annual seminar for new law school deans.
Closer to home, Professor O’Hara serves as a member of the Lay Review Board for the Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend under the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People adopted by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee to Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area and a summa cum laude undergraduate of Santa Clara University, Professor O’Hara was a Kiley Fellow at Notre Dame Law School. She graduated from the Law School summa cum laude and first in her class in 1974. Prior to entering the academy, she practiced corporate law for six years with Brobeck, Phleger, and Harrison in San Francisco.
Professor O’Hara has been honored twice by the Congregation of Holy Cross with the Howard J. Kenna Award in 1997 and the Spirit of Holy Cross Award in 2008 for her commitment to Notre Dame and to the ministries of Holy Cross.
Book Segments
Churning Claims Under Federal Securities Law, in Contemporary Issues in Securities Regulation 325 (M. Steinberg ed., Butterworth Legal Publishers 1988).
Legal Aspects of Insider Trading, in Ethics and the Investment Industry 101 (John Houck and Rev. Oliver F. Williams, C.S.C., eds., Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business and University Press of America 1989).
Articles
The Elusive Concept of Control in Churning Claims Under Federal Securities and Commodities Law, 75 Georgetown Law Journal 1875 (1987); reprinted in 21 Securities Law Review 281 (1989).
Erosion of the Privity Requirement in Section 12(2) of the Securities Act of 1933: The Expanded Meaning of Seller, 31 UCLA Law Review 921 (1984); cited in Pinter v. Dahl, 486 U.S. 622, 648 n. 24 (1988).
