Deborah L. Rhode was the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and the Director of the Center on the Legal Profession. She was also the author of 30 books and many scholarly and media articles in the fields of professional responsibility, leadership, and gender. Previously, she was the founding chair of the Section on Leadership of the Association of American Law Schools, the founding president of the International Association of Legal Ethics, a
former president of the Association of American Law Schools, a founding director of Stanford's Center on Ethics, a former director of Stanford's Institute of Research on Women and Gender, and a former trustee of Yale University. She also worked as counsel to the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee during the
impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton. The nation's most frequently cited scholar on legal ethics, Rhode 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, the American Foundation's Distinguished Scholar award, the American Bar Association's Pro Bono Publico Award for her work on expanding public service opportunities in law schools, and the White House's Champion of Change award for a lifetime's work in increasing access to justice.
