Rachel Croskery-Roberts
Associate Dean for Lawyering Skills, University of California, Irvine
Professor of Lawyering Skills, University of California, Irvine
Biography
Rachel Croskery-Roberts, J.D., is Associate Dean for Lawyering Skills and Professor of Lawyering Skills at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. She teaches courses in legal writing, research, and advocacy, as well as upper-level courses in business drafting, employment discrimination, and legal ethics. Before joining UCI Law in 2011, Croskery-Roberts served as Associate Director of the Legal Practice Program and Clinical Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School from 2002 to 2011. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 2000, where she graduated 18th in her class and was elected to the Order of the Coif.
Croskery-Roberts was elected President of the Association of Legal Writing Directors, serving from 2023 to 2024, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute from 2010 to 2014. She was elected as an American Bar Foundation Fellow in 2022, a distinction limited to one percent of lawyers in each jurisdiction. She has served in multiple leadership roles within the Association of American Law Schools, including Chair of the Section on Teaching Methods in 2025 and Chair of the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research from 2009 to 2010.
Croskery-Roberts has published extensively on legal education pedagogy, including a co-authored textbook on employment discrimination law and articles on teaching kairos in legal writing, supporting first-generation law students, and using teaching assistants effectively. She has presented at numerous conferences internationally, including the Global Legal Skills Conference and the Applied Legal Storytelling Conference. At UCI, she has coordinated the 1L Client Interviewing Program and served as advisor to the Moot Court and Mock Trial programs, while also serving on various university and law school committees, including as the law school's representative to the UCI Divisional Senate Assembly.
Return to topEducation
- J.D., The University of Michigan, 2000
- B.A. in Letters, The University of Oklahoma, 1992
Distinctions
- American Bar Foundation Fellow, 2022
- Phi Beta Kappa, 1992
- Order of the Coif, 2000
- Oklahoma Regents Scholar, 1992
Areas of Expertise
- Legal Education Pedagogy
- Employment Discrimination Law
- Legal Writing Instruction
- Rhetorical Theory in Law
- Social Justice Curriculum Design
- Applied Legal Storytelling
- Client Interviewing Techniques
Recent Publications
- “Social Justice and the Legal Writing Classroom: Teaching Kairos Through Immersive Exposure to Current and Historical Struggles for Civil and Human Rights”, Proceedings, vol. 5, no. 2, 2025.
- Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Alison Mikkor, Sarah Berman, Olympia Duhart, “Demystifying the Lawyering Skills Classroom for First Generation Law Students: Classroom Strategies”, Fostering First Gen Success and Inclusion: A Guide for Law Schools, Carolina Academic Press, 2025.
- “It's About Time: Kairos as a Dynamic Frame for Crafting Legal Arguments and Analyzing Rhetorical Performances in the Law”, Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 57-98, 2024.
- Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Matthew Cordon, Cassandra Hill, Sarah Morath, Suzanne Rowe, “The Power of the Pack: How to Claim Your Individual Power and Unite Your Pack”, Proceedings, vol. 1, no. 3, 2021.
- Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Ezra Ross, “Creating and Administering an Interviewing Project for 1Ls: Benefits, Challenges, and Lessons Learned from COVID-19”, Perspectives, vol. 29, pp. 9, 2021.
- Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Queena Mewers, “Helping Students Succeed in Synchronous and Asynchronous Environments”, Law Teaching Strategies for a New Era: Beyond the Physical Classroom, Carolina Academic Press, 2021.
- “Ten Years In: A Critical View of the Past, Present, and Future of Skills Education at UC Irvine Law School”, University of California Irvine Law Review, vol. 9, pp. 469, 2020.
- Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Margaret Curtiss Hannon, “From Theory to Practice: Employment Discrimination Law”, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2014.
- “Providing Leadership in Uncertain Times”, Newsletter for the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research, 2009.
- “On Teaching Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research: Past, Present, and Future”, Newsletter for the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research, 2009.
- Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Ted Becker, “Avoiding Common Problems in Using Teaching Assistants: Hard Lessons Learned from Peer Teaching Theory and Experience”, Journal of Legal Writing Institute, vol. 13, pp. 277, 2008.
Contact Information
Email: rcroskery@law.uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-9267
Address: 4800-D Law
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Last updated on 3/24/2026.