Professor Brake's scholarship explores the theoretical underpinnings of various dimensions of equality law.   She has written articles on retaliation and other negative reactions to equality claims, examining how constitutional and statutory law responds to persons who challenge inequality.   Much of her work explores how legal doctrine fits the realities of lived experience, drawing on social science literature to inform that relationship.   She is a nationally recognized expert and author on Title IX and gender equality in sports, and on gender discrimination more broadly.   Her articles have appeared in journals such as the Minnesota Law Review, William and Mary Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender.   Her article, Leveling Down: When Equality Makes Everyone Worse Off, was selected for the prestigious Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum in 2004.

Professor Brake strives to connect her scholarship to practical legal problems.   She recently coauthored a Supreme Court amicus curiae brief in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., in which the Supreme Court rejected a continuing violation rule for challenging ongoing pay discrimination, and testified before Congress in support of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to reverse that decision.

Before joining the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh, Professor Brake was senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C.   She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and Stanford University.

Education

• Title IX Seminar

Specialization

• Gender Discrimination
• Constitutional Law
• Employment Discrimination

Selected Publications

Books

• Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women’s Sports Revolution (NYU Press, 2010), (paperback release date, Aug. 20, 2012)

Book Chapters

• The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009: A Preliminary Report (with Joanna L. Grossman), Employment Law Institute WEST 2010 (Pennsylvania Bar Institute, 2010).

Scholarly Articles:

• Sport and Masculinity: The Promise and Limits of Title IX, Masculinities and Law: A Multidimensional Approach (Frank Rudy Cooper & Ann C. McGinley, eds., NYU Press, 2012).
• Going Outside Title IX to Keep Coach-Athlete Relationships in Bounds, Marquette Sports Law Review (2012);
• Wrestling with Gender: Constructing Masculinity by Refusing to Wrestle Women, Nevada Law Journal (2012).
• The Heart of the Game’: Putting Race and Educational Equity at the Center of Title IX, 7 Va. Sports & Ent. L. J. 199 (2008) (with Verna Williams). 
• What Counts as “Discrimination” in Ledbetter and the Implications for Sex Equality Law, 59 S. Carolina L. Rev. 657 (2008). 
• The Invisible Pregnant Athlete and the Promise of Title IX, 31 Harv. J. of Law & Gender 323 (2008) 
• Title IX as Pragmatic Feminism, 55 Cleveland State L. Rev. 513 (2008).
• Deborah Brake & Joanna Grossman, The Failure of Title VII as a Rights-Claiming System, 86 North Carolina L. Rev. (2008).
• Perceiving Subtle Sexism: Mapping the Social-Psychological Forces and Legal Narratives that Obscure Gender Bias, 16 Columbia J. of Gender & Law (2007).
• Retaliation, 90 Minnesota Law Review 18 (2005).
• When Equality Leaves Everyone Worse Off: The Problem of Leveling Down in Equality Law, 46 William & Mary Law Review 513 (2004).
• Revisiting Title IX's Feminist Legacy: Moving Beyond the Three-Part Test, 12 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & Law (2004).
• The Struggle for Sex Equality in Sport and the Theory Behind Title IX, 34 U. Mich. J. L. Ref. 13 (2001)
• The Cruelest of the Gender Police: Student-to-Student Sexual Harassment and Anti-Gay Peer Harassment under Title IX, 1 Geo. J. Gender & L. 37 (1999).

Presentations

• Presenter, “Going Outside Title IX to Keep Coach-Athlete Relationships in Bounds,” National Sport Law Institute, Marquette University, (Oct. 2011).
• Senior Scholar and Commentator, Sixth Annual Seton Hall Employment and Labor Law Scholars’ Forum, Seton Hall Law School, (Oct. 2011).
• Presenter, “Wrestling with Gender: Constructing Masculinity by Not Wrestling Women,” Faculty Workshop, Univ. of Cincinnati College of Law, (Nov. 2011).
• Presenter, Joint Program on the 40th Anniversary of Title IX, American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, (Jan. 2012).
• Presenter, “Wrestling with Gender: Constructing Masculinity by Refusing to Wrestle Women,” Feminist Legal Theory Seminar, Harvard Law School, (Feb. 2012)
• Lecturer, "Working Hard, Hardly Working: How Misinterpretations of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act Have Undermined Its Effectiveness,” Littler-Mendelsohn Labor-Employment Law Distinguished Lecture, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, (March 2012).
• Keynote Address, “Getting (and Staying) in the Game: Title IX and the Women’s Sports Revolution,” 24th Annual Women’s and Gender Studies Conference, University of Indiana, (Apr. 2012).
• Lecturer, “Title IX at 40: Changes, Challenges, and Champions,” Distinguished Lecture, Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport, Univ. of Minnesota, (Apr. 2012).
• Presenter, “Masculinities in Sport and in Relation to Gender Equality,” Inaugural Conference of the SHARP Center, University of Michigan, (May 2012).

SSRN Author Page

Selected Professional Activities

• Author, NCAA Women’s Issues Committee, coauthored model policy and resource guide on coach-athlete relationships: “Staying in Bounds: An NCAA Model Policy to Prevent Inappropriate Relationships Between Student-Athletes and Athletics Department Personnel” (NCAA Pub. 2012);
• Workshop Leader at NCAA Annual Equity & Inclusion Forum, Bethesda, MD (2011) and New Orleans, LA (2012).