Ruchi Desai
USC Gould School of Law

Ruchi Desai is a strategic business leader, legal professional and educator. She has over 10 years of professional experience in finance, law, strategy, and operations. She has held leadership positions at dynamic start-ups, philanthropic organizations, and mature companies. Desai is uniquely skilled at growing talented teams, creating cross-functional synergies, building companies with efficient infrastructure and fostering collaborative, high-achieving cultures. 

Desai is the vice president of strategy and general counsel at interface rehab, inc., one of the largest rehab services providers in California. In her current role she leads strategic initiatives, including new business development and M&A, compliance and litigation. In Q4 2018, interface doubled the facilities it served and headcount. Desai also serves as an independent consultant helping companies scale quickly and enter new markets. At Ruggable, she oversaw the company’s growth from 130 to 500 employees and build of a new manufacturing plant in Chicago. She currently provides legal counsel and review of SAAS and vendor agreements at Business Insider and teaches courses on business and contract drafting at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law.

Previously, Desai co-founded an IoT start-up building a smart jewelry product grounded in the enduring connections between people, their own selves and the world around them. She has practiced as an intellectual property attorney for two years and is barred in both New York and California. Prior to her legal career, Desai spent two years trading credit default swaps at a market-neutral fund based out of New York.

Desai holds an LLM, specializing in intellectual property, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a JD from Harvard Law School and bachelor’s degrees in finance and international studies from, respectively, the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

PolitiFact
July 21, 2021
Re: Franita Tolson

Franita Tolson was interviewed about restrictive voting laws. "We no longer live in the time of poll taxes and literacy tests," she said. "It's way more subtle now."

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Gregory Keating
May, 2021

“Form and Substance in the 'Private Law' of Torts,” 14 Journal of Tort Law 45 (2021).

Robin Craig
May, 2021

Robin Craig accepted the invitation of the Environmental Law Institute (Washington. D.C.) to participate in its new project on Communicating the Science of Sea Level Rise. The project will involve a webinar and a conference in late 2021, with Craig slated to speak on property, water law, and constitutional issues arising from adaptation to sea level rise.

Robin Craig
May, 2021

Robin Craig accepted an invitation to join the Advisory Board of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Center for Water Policy.