Rate My Professor Rachel Avery

Rachel Avery is an Associate Professor (Education) in Durham Law School at the University of Durham, serving as Deputy Dean (Education) and Director of Education. She leads educational initiatives within the Law faculty and is module leader for the Commercial Law module. Rachel graduated with a Double First Class Honours degree in Law (MA) from Trinity College, Cambridge (1998-2001), followed by an LLM from the University of California, Berkeley (2001-2002), and completed the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law (2002-2003). During her Berkeley studies, she interned at the San Francisco office of the State Public Defender, assisting with habeas corpus appeals for death row inmates. Awarded a Mansfield Scholarship by Lincoln's Inn in 2003, she was called to the Bar that year, undertook pupillage at Devereux Chambers in London, and became a tenant in 2004. From 2005 to 2006, she worked as a Judicial Assistant to the Law Lords, assigned to Lady Hale. Rachel continues her barrister practice in Employment and Commercial Law while holding academic appointments at Durham since 2010 as a part-time lecturer, progressing to Associate Professor (Teaching) in 2019 and Honorary Fellow since 2015. Between 2022 and September 2024, she was the Law School lead on outreach, emphasizing school programmes.

Her research specializations and teaching focus on Commercial Law and Employment Law, including contract law modules. Rachel is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). In 2023, she jointly received the Durham Law School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Award. She co-convenes the First Generation Scholars Group, serves on the Law School Employability Board, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Durham Law School Alumni Association. Key publication: “Killing kids who kill: an international perspective on the juvenile death penalty in the United States,” UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs (Volume 7). Through her roles in employability courses, podcasts, and outreach, Rachel Avery contributes significantly to legal education, student development, and inclusivity in the Law field at Durham.