Rachel Van Cleave

Rachel Van Cleave is the former dean and professor of law at Golden Gate University, School of Law with over twenty years’ experience in legal education at six different ABA-accredited law schools as a professor and as an administrator. Dean Van Cleave earned her BS at Stanford and JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. She clerked at Baker and McKenzie and after graduation served as a federal clerk for Fifth Circuit Judge Sam Johnson. In addition to early roles as a legal research and writing instructor at Santa Clara and a Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School, where she also earned her JSM, Van Cleave was a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law and UC Hastings College of the Law. In 1995, Van Cleave received a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research at the Italian Constitutional Court on changes to the Italian criminal justice system, and later returned to Italy to research reforms in Italian rape law. She has published 15 law review articles and four book chapters. In addition to her scholarly acumen, Van Cleave has spearheaded recent curricular reforms to provide GGU Law students with even more skills training. Specifically, in addition to teaching core courses, Van Cleave has designed and taught original seminars that integrate research and writing with real world problems—courses like her Katrina and Disaster Law Seminar. Teaching in GGU Law’s unique Law and Leadership program, she has helped law students to develop and exhibit leadership through meaningful projects.