News Release
Contact:
Jim Greif
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(202)296-1593
Washington, D.C. (December 15, 2025) — The recipients of the 2026 Deborah L. Rhode Award are Joanna Grossman, Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law, and Kimberly Mutcherson, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School.
The annual award honors the legacy of Deborah L. Rhode, who died in January 2021 after a distinguished career in law. She was the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School. Rhode served as president of the Association of American Law Schools in 1998, was the founding president of the International Association of Legal Ethics in 2010, and authored 30 books on leadership, professional responsibility, gender law, and public policy.
“Professor Joanna Grossman and Professor Kimberly Mutcherson exemplify so many of the outstanding qualities that Professor Deborah Rhode possessed and pushed for within the legal profession,” said Angela I. Onwuachi-Willig, Chair of the award selection committee and Dean and Ryan Roth Gallo Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. “They are not only clever and creative, but also courageous and caring. The Committee was particularly impressed by Grossman’s and Mutcherson’s excellent critical scholarship; their trailblazing in the legal academy; their influence as public intellectuals; and their important role as advocates and lawyers, as leaders who are putting their ideas into practice and having a real impact on the lives of others.”
The Rhode Award is presented collaboratively by four Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Sections on Leadership, Pro Bono & Service Opportunities, Professional Responsibility, and Women in Legal Education. The honor is awarded annually to the law professor or lawyer who exemplifies the groundbreaking work, imagination, and inspired action of Deborah Rhode.
“I am so honored to receive an award in the name of my professor, co-author, and friend Deborah Rhode,” Grossman said. “Much of my life has been animated by her commitment to unearthing the complicated forces that create and maintain gender inequity as well as her devotion to expanding access to the civil justice system. There is no award I would be prouder to receive.”
“I am thrilled to receive this prestigious award named for a legend in the legal academy, and I am equally honored to be in the company of the impressive list of past recipients whose work and careers I have long admired,” Mutcherson said.
The selection committee for the award included Joan M. Heminway (University of Tennessee, Winston College of Law), Jon J. Lee (University of Oklahoma College of Law), Marni B. Lennon (University of Miami School of Law), and Grace Meng (University of California, Los Angeles School of Law). The award will be presented at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans on January 9, 2025.
About AALS
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), founded in 1900, is a nonprofit association of 174 member and 19 fee-paid law schools. Its members enroll most of the nation’s law students and produce the majority of the country’s lawyers and judges, as well as many of its lawmakers. The mission of AALS is to improve and advance legal education. AALS carries out its mission by promoting the core values of excellence in teaching and scholarship, academic freedom, and diversity, including diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints, while seeking to foster justice, and to serve our many communities–local, national, and international. In support of its mission, AALS serves as both the institutional membership organization for law schools, and as the learned society for law faculty.
