Rachel Van Cleave

Professor of Law Rachel A. Van Cleave joined the faculty at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in 2024. Professor Van Cleave teaches Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, the Shadow Docket, and Comparative #MeToo. In addition, she has designed and taught innovative courses such as Reimagining Criminal Justice, Rebellious Lawyering, and Katrina and Disaster Law. 

Professor Van Cleave has taught at Texas Tech University School of Law, Golden Gate University School of Law, Richmond University School of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, the University of California, 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 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 US 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 has contributed chapters to four 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.