Associate Professor of Law
School of Law
Associate Professor (courtesy), MU Department of Sociology and MU School of Social Work
Faculty Scholar, Michael A. Middleton Center for Race, Citizenship, and Justice
Rachel J. Wechsler
About Rachel J. Wechsler
Rachel J. Wechsler is an associate professor of law at Mizzou Law and an affiliate faculty member in the MU School of Social Work and MU Department of Sociology. Professor Wechsler previously served as a research fellow at the Zimroth Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at the New York University School of Law. Her research focuses on gender-based violence and the criminal and family legal systems. Her interdisciplinary work reflects her background in law and social science. She holds a doctorate in criminology and a master’s degree in evidence-based social work, both from the University of Oxford, and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Professor Wechsler’s scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Boston College Law Review, the Washington Law Review, the Fordham International Law Journal, the British Journal of Criminology, and Theoretical Criminology.
In 2024, Professor Wechsler received the Jordan Hoyt Memorial Tribute to Women Award from the University of Missouri Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women, the Balance of Justice Award from the Student Bar Association, and the Carey May Carroll Award from the Women’s Law Association.
Professor Wechsler served as the associate director of NYU’s Lawyering Program from 2019-2020 and as an acting assistant professor from 2017-2020. In this position, she received NYU Law’s Podell Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020. Previously, she was the 2015 McDougall Visiting Professor of International Law at the West Virginia University College of Law, where she taught International Human Rights Law. Prior to earning her doctorate, Professor Wechsler worked as a litigation associate at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York.
Areas of Expertise
- Gender-Based Violence
- Human Trafficking
- Intimate Partner Violence
- Restorative Justice
- Victims/Survivors
Educational Background
- BS, Cornell University
- DPhil, MSc, University of Oxford
- JD, University of Pennsylvania