Four Women Appointed to Named Professorships at Duke University School of Law

The law school at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, recently announced the appointment of six faculty members to named professorships. Four of the six professors named to endowed chairs are women. All appointments are effective July 1.

Rachel Brewster was named the Jeffrey and Bettysue Hughes Professor of Law. Professor Brewster joined the faculty at Duke in 2012 after teaching at Harvard Law School. She is a former clerk for Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Professor Brewster holds a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctorate from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Trina Jones was appointed the Jerome M. Culp Professor of Law. Professor Jones joined the faculty of Duke Law School in 1995, after practicing as a general litigator at what is now the Wilmer Hale law firm in Washington, D.C. From 2008-2011, she served as a founding member of the faculty at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. Professor Jones is a graduate of Cornell University, where she majored in government. She earned her law degree at the University of Michigan.

Theresa A. Newman will be the Charles S. Rhyne Professor of Law. She is co-director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic and associate director of the Duke Law School Center for Criminal Justice and Professional Responsibility. Professor Newman joined the faculty at Duke Law School in 1990 and served as the associate dean for academic affairs from 1999-2008. A graduate of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Professor Newman earned her law degree at Duke.

Jane R. Wettach was named the William B. McGuire Clinical Professor of Law. She is also director of the Children’s Law Clinic at Duke. Professor Wettach joined the Duke Law faculty in 1994 after practicing poverty law for 13 years with legal aid offices in Raleigh and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the North Carolina Supreme Court. Professor Wettach holds a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.