Professor Scharf earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor on the Journal on Legislation. Before beginning her teaching career at the Boyd School of Law, Professor Scharf worked at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice in New York City, contributing to significant class action impact litigation on social justice issues. Prior to this, she worked as an attorney for The Legal Aid Society of New York City, providing critical legal services to impoverished families in the South Bronx.

Professor Scharf’s teaching career began as a legal writing professor before she advanced into a tenure-track Associate Professor position on Boyd’s fully integrated tenure track in 2013, becoming a Full Professor with tenure in 2018. During this time, she served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute, including serving as Secretary. Since coming to Boyd, she has built a strong scholarly record in Privacy Law and Technology, Family Law, Juvenile Law, and Legal Writing. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals such as the Georgetown Journal on Gender and the Law, the Indiana Law Journal, the Utah Law Review, and the UC Davis Journal of Juvenile Law & Policy. She teaches Legal Research and Writing; Property Law; Privacy, Publicity &; Defamation; and Wills, Trusts, & Estates.