Clinical
Professor and Codirector of the Pro Bono Research Project.
Professor
Ricks earned her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she cofounded the Yale
Journal of Law and Feminism. She graduated summa cum laude from
Barnard College, Columbia University, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After
clerking from 1990-92 for the Honorable Thomas N. O'Neill Jr., of the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, she joined Pepper Hamilton as a
litigation associate. From 1995 to 2001, she was an appellate and legislative
attorney for the Philadelphia Law Department, where she litigated dozens of
federal and state appeals, including arguments before the Third Circuit Court.
In 2009,
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter appointed Ricks a commissioner on the
Philadelphia Commission for Human Relations, which enforces the City's
antidiscrimination laws in employment, public accommodations, housing, and
delivery of city services. Ricks is a member of the American Law Institute
(2009- ), a board member of the Women's Law Project (2006-13), co-chair
of the Section 1983 Subcommittee of the ABA Civil Rights Litigation Committee
(2012- ), and chair of the Scholarship Grants Committee of the
Association of Legal Writing Directors (2005- ).
She earned a
Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2009. She is the author of Current Issues in Constitutional
Litigation: A Context and Practice Casebook
(Carolina Academic Press,
2011), the chapter on "Constitutional Research" in Federal Legal
Research (Carolina Academic Press, 2012), contributions to "Teaching the
Law School Curriculum, Vol. 2" (Carolina Academic Press, 2011), and law review
articles on constitutional litigation, federal appellate courts, and law
teaching, published
by Washington Law Review, Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, Yale
Journal of Law and Feminism, Toledo Law Review, Perspectives, Journal of Legal
Education, The Law Teacher, Journal of the Association of Legal Writing
Directors, and others. In
2012, she taught at a university in Spain. During 2012-13, she was visiting professor at
the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
