Biography

Deborah L. Rhode is one of the nation’s leading scholars in the fields of legal ethics and gender, law, and public policy. An author of 20 books, including Women and Leadership and Moral Leadership, she is the most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. She is the director of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession.

Professor Rhode is the former president of the Association of American Law Schools, the former chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, the founder and former director of Stanford’s Center on Ethics, and the former director of the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford. She also served as senior counsel to the Minority members of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary on presidential impeachment issues during the Clinton administration. She has received the American Bar Association’s Michael Franck award for contributions to the field of professional responsibility; the American Bar Foundation’s W. M. Keck Foundation Award for distinguished scholarship on legal ethics, and the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico Award for her work on expanding public service opportunities in law schools. She is currently a columnist for the The National Law Journal and vice chair of the board of Legal Momentum (formerly the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund).

Before joining the Stanford Law faculty, Professor Rhode was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Key Works

• Barbara Kellerman and Deborah L. Rhode, eds., Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, September 2007.
• Katharine T. Bartlett and Deborah L. Rhode, Gender and Law: Theory, Doctrine, Commentary, New York: Aspen Publishers, 4th ed., 2006.
• Deborah L. Rhode, Moral Leadership: The Theory and Practice of Power, Judgment, and Policy, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.
• Deborah L. Rhode and Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr., Professional Responsibility and Regulation, New York: Foundation Press, 2d. ed., 2006
• Deborah L. Rhode, Pro Bono in Principle and Practice, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005.
• Deborah L. Rhode, Access to Justice, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Deborah L. Rhode and David Luban, Legal Ethics, New York, NY: Foundation Press, 4th edition, 2004.
• Deborah L. Rhode, Speaking of Sex: the Denial of Gender Inequality, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

In the News

• Economic Crisis Brings Pro Bono To Crossroads
  The National Law Journal - Legal Tech on Demand, May 18, 2009
• Women and the Court
  On Point with Tom Ashbrook, May 12, 2009
• High Court Chatter Focuses On Women
  The New York Times, May 02, 2009
• 12 scholars named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  Stanford Report, April 20, 2009
• Economy Will Force Law Firms To Retool For New Environment
  San Francisco Business Times, March 13, 2009

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Gender Law and Public Policy
• Legal Ethics
• Public Interest, Public Service, and Professional Ethics

Programs

• Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Deborah Rhode, In a "Different" Voice: What Does the Research About How Gender Influences Judging Actually Say? Slate.com, June 10, 2009.
• Deborah L. Rhode and Amanda K. Packel, Ethics and Nonprofits, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2009, pg. 28.
• Deborah L. Rhode, Lawyers as Citizens, 50 William & Mary Law Review 1323 (March 2009).
• Deborah L. Rhode, Rethinking the Public in Lawyers' Public Service: Pro Bono, Strategic Philanthropy, and the Bottom Line, 77 Fordham Law Review 1435 (March 2009).
• Deborah L. Rhode and David Luban, Legal Ethics, New York: Foundation Press, 5th ed., January 2009.
• Deborah Rhode and James Sokolove, We Must Do Better, National Law Journal, December 22, 2008, pg. 23
• Deborah L. Rhode, The Palin Punditry, National Law Journal, September 15, 2008, pg. 23.
• Deborah L. Rhode, Foreword: Personal Satisfaction in Professional Practice (Symposium: Perspectives on Lawyer Happiness), 58 Syracuse Law Review 217 (April 2008).
• Deborah L. Rhode, Public Interest Law: The Movement at Midlife, 60 Stanford Law Review 2027 (April 2008).
• Deborah L. Rhode, Politics and Pregnancy: Adolescent Mothers and Public Policy, in The Reproductive Rights Reader, Nancy Ehrenreich, ed., New York: New York University Press, January 2008.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Founding Director, Stanford Center on Ethics
• Chair, Panel on Gender Equity, Stanford University
• Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense Fund)
• Columnist, National Law Journal
• Chair, Stanford Law School Committee on Public Interest and Pro Bono Service
• President (1998-1999), Association of American Law Schools
• Chair (2000-2002), Commission on Women and the Profession, American Bar Association

Honors and Awards

• Recipient, American Bar Association Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award, 2006