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Camille A. Nelson, Dean and Professor of Law of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, has been selected as a recipient of the 2025 Deborah L. Rhode Award presented by the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). Dean Nelson will receive this award at the AALS Annual Meeting on Jan. 9, 2025 in San Francisco, California.
The award is a joint recognition by AALS sections Leadership, Pro Bono & Service Opportunities, Professional Responsibility, and Women in Legal Education. It honors individuals, like Deborah L. Rhode, who exemplify groundbreaking contributions and inspired action in advancing leadership, professional responsibility, pro-bono service and gender equality in law.
“I am truly humbled by this recognition,” Dean Nelson said. “It means so much to me – more than I can adequately convey. It is incredible and fills me with joy and appreciation to have my name uttered in the same breath as the legendary Deborah Rhode. I consider myself blessed to be included among the other recipients of this prestigious Award. You made my year – thank you!”
Dean Nelson shares the prestigious honor with Jessica Steinberg, John Marshall Harlan Dean’s Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School.
“All of this year’s nominees for the Deborah L. Rhode Award were incredibly inspiring,” said Janine Dunlap-Kiah and Deborah Schlosberg, co-chairs of the award selection committee. “The Committee is thrilled to recognize Dean Nelson and Professor Steinberg for their impactful work. They both are shining examples of Professor Rhode’s commitment to access to justice and gender law and policy. We are confident that they will continue to blaze the trail for their colleagues in the legal academy and leave a lasting legacy just as Professor Rhode did.”
In addition to her leadership impact and teaching excellence, her research and writing are far-reaching in their focus. Her capacious appreciation of legal scholarship in its historical, international, and interdisciplinary contexts has implications for areas as vast as criminal law defenses, policing, cultural studies in legal theory and musicology, mental health implications for tort law, as well as critiques of historical applications of property law during American and West Indian slavery.
Her research has recently also highlighted topics in higher education, such as explorations of technological transformation, diversity, inclusion and equity, and organizational behavior in the legal academy.