Ramya Krishnan is a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute and a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School. Her litigation focuses on issues related to protest and dissent, public employee speech, and the digital public sphere.

Krishnan leads the Knight Institute’s litigation in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio, a challenge to the Trump Administration’s policy of deporting noncitizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian advocacy. She also leads the Institute’s litigation in National Association of Immigration Judges v. Owen, a challenge to government policies that gag the nation’s immigration judges, and Zuckerman v. Meta Platforms Inc., a case arguing that Section 230 protects tools that empower people to control what they see on social media. She has authored amicus briefs defending privacy and transparency laws from First Amendment challenge, challenging retaliatory deportations against immigrant activists, and supporting the right of state contractors to engage in BDS boycotts. She has also led the Institute’s advocacy efforts calling on Congress to establish a legal safe harbor for platform research.

Krishnan has been published or quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, among other publications. She was the Knight Institute’s inaugural legal fellow. Prior to joining the Institute, she litigated constitutional and administrative law cases on behalf of the Australian government. From 2013-2014, she served as law clerk for the Hon. Robert Beech Jones, then a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, now a Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Krishnan holds a B.A. and LL.B. (First Class Honors) from the University of Sydney, where she served as an editor of the Sydney Law Review, and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Raymond J. Baer Scholar.