Professor Lizabeth Ann (Liz) Moody passed away in Florida on May 19, 2023.
An icon in legal education. The National Jurist once rated her as one of the 25 most important people in legal education, and her biography has been placed in the Library of Congress as one of the Women Trailblazers in the Law.
Liz was inducted in our CSU|LAW Hall of Fame in 2017. In 1967, she joined our adjunct faculty and in 1970, she joined our full-time faculty, and served as a member of our faculty for 20 years. She was the second woman member of our tenure track faculty, after Professor (and later Judge) Ann Aldrich. In 1987-88, she served as Interim Dean of CSU|LAW, the first woman to hold that position.
In 1972, while teaching at our law school, Liz and Professor Jane Picker created the Women’s Law Fund, Inc., the first law firm in the nation to specialize in sex-discrimination cases. Liz served as its President. As law professors, Liz and Jane represented Jo Carol LaFleur, a teacher who sued the Cleveland public school system in 1971 over its pregnancy policy. At that time, all women had to quit teaching after the fourth month of pregnancy and couldn't return until three months after the birth. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a law professor at Rutgers University, filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Cleveland's policy violated due process, mandatory pregnancy leaves were banned throughout the United States. Liz Moody, Jane Picker, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg continued to litigate women's issues and served together as board members of the Women's Law Fund.
Liz was one of only seven women in her class of 160 Yale Law graduates. Before entering teaching, she was a partner in the Cleveland law firm of Metzenbaum, Gaines & Stem, and an associate in law firms in Ohio and Connecticut. She was one of the first women rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell.
From 1994 to 1999, Liz Moody served as Vice President and Dean of Stetson University College of Law. Under her direction, Stetson opened a new library (dedicated by her friend Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg) and laid the foundation for part-time and international programs. She was a visiting faculty member at George Washington University, the University of Toledo, Southern Methodist University School of Law, Brooklyn Law School, and the Wallace Fugiyama Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii. She also taught in the summer programs in Estonia and Bratislava.
Liz was also the first woman President of the Cleveland Bar Association in 1987-88. Liz was honored by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association (CMBA) as part of Legacy150 on the cover of the April Bar Journal, She created the Commission on Women in the Law, which is still going strong as the CMBA Women in the Law Section. She was also the first woman chair of the ABA Senior Lawyers Division; a member of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. She served as chair of the Accreditation Committee and chair of the Pre-law Committee.
In 1992, Liz received the Ohio State Bar Medal, the association’s highest award for “unusually meritorious service to the profession, the community and humanity,” and was a member of the ABA House of Delegates serving as a section delegate to the House from the Section of Business Law and the Division of Senior Lawyers. She served as the nonprofit liaison to the Business Law Section Committee on Corporations. She also served as chair of the Drafting Committee of the Model Nonprofit Corporation Act, and was the ABA advisor to the Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act. In 1997, the Section of Business Law bestowed the “Glass Cutter” Award for her extraordinary efforts in assisting women achieve new heights in the profession. Professor Moody was recognized by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell as an AV Preeminent Rated Lawyer. She also served as an officer of the Ohio diocese of the Episcopal Church.
As President and CEO of Law School Admissions Services, Moody founded the Access Loan Program, which provides billions of dollars in student loans. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools and a trustee of the Law School Admission Council. She was an elected member of the American Law Institute and a member of the ALIABA Continuing Legal Education Committee. She was a member of the Florida Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism. She was a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation and was appointed by the U.S. President to serve as a member of the Civil Rights Reviewing Authority of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. She was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Committee to the Women’s Division of the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services, the Ohio Public Defender Commission, the Ohio Ethics Commission, and as President of the Cuyahoga County Economic Development Commission. The Mayor of Cleveland appointed her to the Community Development Corporation. She also served as a member of the Multi-State Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) Drafting Committee and as chair of the Committee to Review the MPRE.
Liz Moody generously funded the The Lizabeth A. Moody Endowed Scholarship Fund for CSU|LAW students with a demonstrated financial need or who may present unique barriers to graduation.
If you wish to contribute to the Fund in Liz’s memory, checks should be made payable to: CSU Law Lizabeth A. Moody Endowed Scholarship Fund and sent to:
Cleveland State University College of Law
2121 Euclid Ave, LB 138
Cleveland, Ohio 44115 -2214