Rate My Professor Meredith Duncan

Professor Meredith J. Duncan is the Alumnae College Professor of Law and Assistant Dean for Strategic Opportunities, Pedagogy, and Faculty, Student, and Community Engagement at the University of Houston Law Center, where she joined the faculty in 1998, advancing from Assistant Professor to full Professor in 2019. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University and a J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from the University of Houston Law Center in 1993. After graduation, she served as an associate at Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P. from 1994 to 1996 and clerked for the Honorable Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1996 to 1998. Throughout her career at the Law Center, she has held endowed positions including George Butler Research Professor of Law from 2005 to 2021 and administrative roles such as Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Metropolitan Programs from 2019 to 2023 and Director of Metropolitan Programs from 2016 to 2019. She also served as Straus Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law in Fall 2007.

Duncan teaches Torts, Criminal Law, Professional Responsibility, Legal Ethics, Sexual Assault Law, and Equal Justice and the Law. Her publications include co-authored textbooks Tort Law: A Contemporary Approach (4th ed., West Academic Publishing, 2024) with Rory Bahadur, Advanced Torts: A Lawyer’s Perspective (2d ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2020) with Alex Long, and articles such as “Digital Ecosystem of Accountability and Digitized Open-File Criminal Discovery,” 59 American Criminal Law Review (2021), and “Lucky” Adnan Syed: Comprehensive Changes to Improve Criminal Defense Lawyering and Better Protect Criminal Defendants’ Sixth Amendment Rights, 82 Brooklyn Law Review 1651 (2017). She has earned the University of Houston Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award (2018), Houston Lawyers Association Roberson L. King Excellence in Education Award (2024), multiple Outstanding Professor of the Year awards from the Student Bar Association, UHLC Faculty Commencement Speaker selections (2021-2024), and recognition as a “hooder” at commencements. One of 26 law professors profiled in What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, 2013), she oversees the Pre-Law Pipeline Program, chairs committees including Appointments and Opportunities and Community, advises student organizations, and serves on the Houston Food Bank Board and AALS Section on Teaching Methods.