Rachel Moran


Rachel F. Moran is an American lawyer who is the Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. 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.

Biography

Moran was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Yuma, Arizona. Her father, Thomas Moran, was an Irish criminal defense attorney, and her mother, Josephine Moran, was a Mexican teacher and court interpreter.
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 as its first Latina law professor, and taught there for 25 years. 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.
Moran's scholarship has focused on torts, education law, civil rights, race and the law, and critical race theory.

Publications