Directory

Deborah L. Rhode
Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law

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, she is the most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. She has headed Stanford Law School’s Keck Center on Legal Ethics and the Legal Profession, and is the founding director of Stanford University’s Center on Ethics.

Professor Rhode has served as President of the Association of American Law Schools, Chair of the American Bar Association Commission on Women and the Profession, Director of Stanford University’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and Special Counsel to the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives during the Clinton impeachment proceedings. She is a regular columnist for the National Law Journal. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1979, she was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Key Works

In the News

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

Education

  • BA, Yale University, 1974
  • JD, Yale Law School, 1977

Expertise

  • Antidiscrimination Law
  • Ethics and Professional Responsibility
  • Sex and the Law