Professor Rebecca K. Lee teaches in the areas of employment law, employment discrimination, and contracts. Her scholarship focuses on issues of antidiscrimination law and policy in the workplace concerning how to achieve substantive equality at work, particularly gender and race equity. She has written on the relationship between diversity goals and antidiscrimination objectives, and has further examined the importance of organizational leadership in achieving substantive diversity and equality. Her work in this area has been quoted in the amicus briefs for the State of California and other amici filed in the U.S. Supreme Court for Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. More recently, her research has centered on questions of judicial decision making in order to reach impartial and fair outcomes, and also looks at judicial leadership as a significant but under-recognized aspect of a judge’s work. In addition to her scholarship and teaching, Professor Lee recently served as the Chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law. In addition, she is a board member of the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty (CAPALF).
Before joining the faculty, Professor Lee was a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University Law Center and practiced law at the international law firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C. Her practice centered on employment and labor law, government contracts, and antitrust matters. She also worked at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs as a Crowell & Moring Public Interest Fellow. In law school, she served as editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy and worked as a judicial intern for the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Prior to attending law school, Professor Lee earned a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, where she received the Dean Albert Carnesale Fellowship and was co-managing editor of the Asian American Policy Review. Before pursuing her graduate studies, she joined Teach for America as a corps member and taught at an under-resourced middle school in Oakland, California. Professor Lee obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy Studies from the University of Chicago. At Chicago, she was awarded a University Prize for her senior thesis, which was selected as the best undergraduate paper written in the area of women's studies, feminist criticism, or gender studies and subsequently published in a law journal.
Courses Include: Contracts, Employment Law, and Employment Discrimination.
The Future of Workplace Affirmative Action After Fisher, 89 St. John's L. Rev. 597 (2015)(selected paper for symposium issue on Title VII at 50).
Judging Judges: Empathy as the Litmus Test for Impartiality, 82 U. Cin. L. Rev. 145 (2013)
Sonia Sotomayor: Role Model of Empathy and Purposeful Ambition, 98 Minn. L. Rev. Headnotes 73 (2013) (reviewing Sonia Sotomayor, My Beloved World (2013))
Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin: Promoting Full Judicial Review and Process in Applying Strict Scrutiny, 4 Hous. L. Rev. HLRe 33 (2013)
Justice for All?, 65 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 217 (2012) (reviewing Judith Resnik & Dennis Curtis, Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms (2011))
Implementing Grutter's Diversity Rationale: Diversity and Empathy in Leadership, 19 Duke J. Gender L. & Pol'y 133 (2011)
Core Diversity, 19 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 477 (2010)
The Organization as a Gendered Entity: A Response to Professor Schultz's The Sanitized Workplace, 15 Colum. J. Gender & L. 609 (2006)
Assimilation at the Cost of Authenticity, 15 Asian Am. Pol'y Rev. 59 (2006) (reviewing Kenji Yoshino, Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights (2006))
Pink, White, and Blue: Class Assumptions in the Judicial Interpretations of Title VII Hostile Environment Sex Harassment, 70 Brook. L. Rev. 677 (2005)
Romantic and Electronic Stalking in a College Context, 4 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 373 (1998)
The Implications of Fisher v. University of Texas on Workplace Affirmative Action, Title VII at 50 Symposium, hosted by St. John’s University School of Law and the NYU Center for Labor and Employment Law , New York, NY (April 4, 2014)
Reconceptualizing the Judge as Public Leader, 8th Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada-Las Vegas , Las Vegas, NV (September 27, 2013)
Judging Judges: Empathy as the Litmus Test for Impartiality, Prof. Orly Lobel’s Seminar on Work, Welfare, and Justice, University of San Diego School of Law , San Diego, CA (February 14, 2013)
Panelist, Q&A with The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 13th Annual Women and the Law Conference, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA (February 8, 2013)
Judging Judges: Empathy as the Litmus Test for Impartiality, Annual Meeting of the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty, UC Hastings College of Law, San Francisco, CA (February 2, 2013)
On Judicial Leadership, Seventh Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium, hosted by Northwestern University School of Law and Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL (September 15, 2012)
On Judicial Leadership, Law and Society Association's Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI (June 8, 2012)
Employment Discrimination in a Diverse Population: An Important Exception to At-Will Employment, Legal Business Conference , San Diego French-American Chamber of Commerce and Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA (April 18, 2012)
Moderator, Panel on Good Faith, 7th International Contracts Conference, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA (March 3, 2012)
Judging and Empathy: Sixth Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium, hosted by Loyola Law School, Southwestern Law School, and UCLA School of Law (September 16, 2011)
Judging and Empathy: Law and Society Association’s Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (June 4, 2011)
Implementing Grutter’s Diversity Rationale: Diversity and Empathy in Leadership: Prof. Orly Lobel’s Seminar on Work, Welfare, and Justice, University of San Diego School of Law (March 8, 2011)
Judging and Empathy: Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty/Western Law Teachers of Color, University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law (December 12, 2010)
Diversity and Empathy in Leadership: Law and Society Association’s Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL (May 30, 2010)
Diversity and Empathy in Leadership: Fourth Annual Critical Race Studies Symposium, UCLA School of Law and co-sponsored by Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s Women and the Law Project (March 11, 2010)
Diversity and Empathy in Leadership: Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty/Western Law Teachers of Color, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (March 5, 2010)
Diversity and Empathy in Leadership: Fourth Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium, Seton Hall University School of Law (September 25, 2009)
Core Diversity: Law and Society Association’s Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (May 28, 2009)
Core Diversity: Third Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium, hosted by Thomas Jefferson School of Law, California Western School of Law, and the University of San Diego School of Law (October 24, 2008)
