Dr. Reena Patel earned her PhD in 2000 and her LLM in 1994 from University of Warwick, UK. Her field of study for the PhD was Hindu Law, gender equality and property rights in rural India. Her focus areas during her LLM were: multinational companies and transnational enterprise; law and development; and gender. She was in the founding batch at National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, and graduated in 1993 with Dual Degree Honours. In 2015 she spent a semester at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA.

Dr. Patel is a legal academic, mentor and coach with a passion for delivering quality higher education across various contexts globally. She has previously taught at Warwick Law School, UK, for over a decade and held significant positions there including those related to development and law, partnership building and exchange with other universities from Europe and South Asia. She served as Professor of Law and Founding Dean of Maharishi Law School, Noida, and Director, Maharishi University of Information Technology, Noida.

Her publications focus on gender, access to resources, and equality. She is a leader in promoting gender in governance across different sectors, ensuring quality and compliance to the standards of excellence in fields as diverse as: higher learning; coaching and mentoring; research; and advocacy. She is also been a leader in developing regional networks and alliances for gender empowerment, peace and development. Dr. Patel was co-founder and core group member of the South Asian Regional Network (SARN) for Gender, Law and Governance — and developed partnerships across policy institutions and groups on the ground in the region. She has rich experience in training  students, faculty, NGOs, university administrators, women and judicial officers in different country and regional contexts. She is a Council Member of The Sustainability Platform (TSP) Asia, a collaborative platform focusing on building capacity and designing expert interventions in sustainability, law and policy. Dr. Patel also serves as a Founding Trustee of Life and Liberty Foundation (LLF), an organisation that is committed to protecting life, liberty and dignity through promoting the rule of law, fair trial and fair treatment of all within the criminal justice system.

As the Dean of the Law School, Dr. Patel will provide leadership in building an institution of impact — attracting and engaging the best and brightest faculty and students, designing programmes and curricula,  and initiating academic research as a vehicle for influencing society at large.