Emily Murphy’s Dedication to Students’ Intellectual, Career Growth Cited in Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence Honor

Professor Emily Murphy, the 2025 Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence winner, strives to bring empathy, authenticity, and intellectual rigor to her teaching.

While spending over a decade earning advanced degrees in science and law, Professor Emily Murphy encountered a full spectrum of educators and took note of what made the great ones stand out—qualities like empathy, openness, and authenticity.

Victoria Ayeni ’20 says Murphy trains students to think critically about the policy implications behind laws and legal processes.

Now, as winner of the 2025 Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence, she’s being recognized for bringing those same qualities into her classroom at UC Law San Francisco.

“What makes Professor Murphy an exceptional professor is the personal investment that she puts into her students’ professional and intellectual growth,” said Victoria Ayeni ’20, now an associate specializing in employment litigation at Shepard Mullen.

Ayeni, speaking at a March 12 award ceremony, recalled that Murphy taught students to think critically about how the law could be improved to better serve society—and how she used fun TV and movie clips to illustrate complex rules of evidence.

Outside the classroom, Murphy is also a pioneer in legal academia, blending brain science and law into groundbreaking research, opening uncharted areas of scholarly exploration.

“Professor Murphy is one of the country’s top scholars, having defined new fields of inquiry at the intersection of neuroscience, behavioral science, and law—and yet she also prioritizes teaching excellence,” said Provost & Academic Dean Morris Ratner.

Jordan Diamond ’24 says Murphy teaches students to always be skeptical, ask questions, and seek the truth.

Professor Stefano Moscato, last year’s Rutter Award winner, described five key qualities that set Murphy apart: her enthusiasm for teaching, student-centered approach, high expectations, eagerness to collaborate, and unwavering support for students inside and outside the classroom.

“I absolutely adore having Emily as a colleague,” Moscato said, noting that they “learn from each other and become better teachers. She’s always sharing her ideas with the rest of the faculty.”

Former student Jordan Diamond ’24, now an attorney at Employee Justice Legal Group in Los Angeles, described Murphy’s “incredible authenticity” and how she encouraged students to think critically and challenge assumptions.

“Her unwavering commitment to truth is something I will carry with me forever,” Diamond said. “I know Professor Murphy believes wholeheartedly that truth matters, and as lawyers, it’s our responsibility to fight for it and defend it, even when we are in the minority.”

Murphy’s journey to legal academia was not a direct path. She earned degrees from Harvard (BA), the University of Cambridge (Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience), and Stanford Law School (JD) and initially pursued a career in science.

Jordan Diamond ’24 says Murphy started out as their professor but quickly became a role model, mentor, and friend.

However, she found that many of her science professors seemed more invested in their research than their students. In contrast, her interactions with legal scholars revealed a profession deeply committed to teaching and mentorship—an aspect that drew her to law, along with the opportunity to pursue innovative interdisciplinary research.

She now teaches contracts, evidence, and law and behavioral science, carrying forward the lessons she learned from the professors who shaped her own education. She recalls how her most influential law professors “loomed large” in her mind, not because of their reputations, but because they brought an authentic joy for teaching and a willingness to share parts of themselves with their students.

“I take my students extremely seriously and I take my responsibility to them extremely seriously,” Murphy said. “I think that being taken seriously is a prerequisite for trust, which is a prerequisite for learning.”

Murphy emphasized the urgency of training future legal professionals in an era when defending the rule of law is more critical than ever.

Provost & Academic Dean Morris Ratner says Murphy brings high standards and an innovative approach to both her teaching and groundbreaking research.

“We do this first by educating people to think rigorously, think clearly, think critically, and think broadly, to debate civilly and to be agile in taking alternative perspectives to truly understand them, even if you mean to defeat them,” she said.

Now in her eighth year at UC Law SF, Murphy expressed gratitude for her family, her students, and the colleagues who guided her early in her career.

“This award is incredibly meaningful to me because teaching has always been incredibly meaningful to me,” she said.

The Rutter Award recipient is selected each year by a four-person committee that includes a student, recent alum, the provost & academic dean, and the prior year’s winner. Established in 1979 by law-guide publisher and philanthropist William Rutter, the award honors outstanding professors at California’s top law schools. Thanks to the Rutter Endowment, UC Law SF’s annual winner receives a $15,000 prize. It is one of the top faculty awards given to a UC Law SF faculty member each year.