Senior Lecturing Fellow
Ms. Rice's primary interests are practical skills training and legal professionalism. She is also interested in the use of technology in law practice and teaching. She teaches Legal Ethics and the AIDS Legal Project Clinic, where she is the de facto "ethics partner" and technology leader.
Ms. Rice began her legal career in 1984 as a staff attorney at Legal Services of Southern Piedmont in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was later appointed Managing Attorney. While at Legal Services, Ms. Rice specialized in housing advocacy, representing hundreds of low-income clients in cases involving evictions, substandard housing conditions, and government subsidized housing. She also represented victims of domestic violence seeking protective orders, custody and child support. In conjunction with this individual client representation, Ms. Rice was involved in inter-agency efforts to improve services to battered women. Ms. Rice’s work at Legal Services also included counseling non-profit organizations and the Charlotte Housing Authority tenant’s organization.
Prior to coming to Duke, Ms. Rice also did legal work for a small public interest law firm and the corporate counsel’s office of an environmental consulting firm.
Ms. Rice received her B.A. in History from Colgate University in 1975, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Boston University in 1984.
In addition to her professional interests, Ms. Rice is involved in efforts to improve educational opportunities for low income children. She served as board chair of the First Presbyterian Day School, an economically and racially diverse child care center in Durham, and co-chair of the E.K. Powe Elementary School Site-Based Decision-Making Committee. She lives in Durham with her husband, Lou Perron, a designer and real estate broker, and her two children, Maggie, 9, and Alex, 11.