Rachel Moran | |
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Born | Rachel F. Moran 1956 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
Alma mater | Stanford University (BA) Yale Law School (JD) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1981–present |
Rachel F. Moran (born 1956) is an American lawyer who is currently a Distinguished Professor at UC Irvine School of Law.[1] She was previously the Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law.[2] She served as Dean of the UCLA School of Law from 2010 to 2015, and was a faculty member at UC Irvine School of Law from 2008 to 2010, and at UC Berkeley School of Law from 1983 to 2008.[3]
Moran was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Yuma, Arizona.[2] Her father, Thomas Moran, was an Irish criminal defense attorney, and her mother, Josephine Moran, was a Mexican teacher and court interpreter.[4][5]
She attended Stanford University, earning a Bachelor's in psychology in 1978. She then earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1981, and clerked for Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the Second Circuit. Following a brief stint in private practice at Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, Moran joined the faculty at UC Berkeley School of Law (then "Boalt Hall") as its first Latina law professor,[6] and taught there for 25 years.[3] After two years at UC Irvine School of Law as a founding faculty member, Moran was selected to become UCLA School of Law's eighth dean in 2010, and the first Latina dean of a top-ranked US law school.[4][2]
Moran's scholarship has focused on torts, education law (particularly bilingual education[4]), civil rights, race and the law, and critical race theory.