Rachel Van Cleave

Rachel Van Cleave joined the faculty at McGeorge School of Law as a Visiting Professor of Law in July 2024. Professor Van Cleave teaches Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Global Lawyering Skills I. Previously, she taught at Golden Gate University School of Law where she designed and taught innovative courses such as Reimagining Criminal Justice, Comparative #MeToo, Rebellious Lawyering, and Katrina and Disaster Law.

At GGU Law, she served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for four years, and later as GGU Law’s Dean for five years. While she was dean, GGU launched several initiatives, including the Veterans Legal Advocacy Clinic and a transformation of classrooms into courtrooms to support the litigation and advocacy programs.

Before joining the faculty at GGU Law, Professor Van Cleave taught at Texas Tech University School of Law for 10 years. She has taught as a visitor at Richmond University School of Law, as a visitor at the University of California, College of Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of Law), and as a Gray Fellow at Stanford Law School. After graduating from Stanford University, she earned her JD at UC College of Law, San Francisco, clerked for the Honorable Sam D. Johnson at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas, and then taught legal research and writing at Santa Clara University School of Law before becoming a Gray Fellow at Stanford Law School where she also earned her JSM degree.

In 1995, Professor Van Cleave received a J. William Fulbright Scholarship to engage in research at Italy’s Constitutional Court on Italy’s adoption of plea bargaining, that was somewhat modeled on the U.S. practice. She has continued to engage in comparative criminal justice scholarship, particularly as to gender based violence. In 2020, she received another J. William Fulbright Scholarship to engage in research at Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassazione. Due to COVID, her grant was postponed to the fall of 2021. She is currently co-authoring a book with Professor Penelope Andrews, entitled Law, Politics, and the #MeToo Movement. She has contributed chapters to four other books and written dozens of articles and opinion pieces on a range of topics, with a focus on advocating for marginalized and vulnerable people; whether they be survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, criminal defendants sentenced under grossly disproportionate “Three Strikes” laws, or sexual violence survivors who are blamed or not believed.