Diane Kemker

Clinical Assistant Professor of Law

Diane (Klein) Kemker joined the Loyola University Chicago School of Law faculty in 2025. She most recently taught at Loyola Law School (Los Angeles), Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, Vermont Law & Graduate School, and the Southern University Law Center.

Professor Kemker’s research and writing focus on the intersection of aspects of identity addressed by antidiscrimination law (race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability) with core legal-doctrinal areas, including property, wills & trusts, tax law, and the law governing lawyers. She is also a past chair of the AALS Section on Jewish Law and was a creator and co-convenor of the Law vs. Antisemitism Conference. She has a strong interest in legal pedagogy and curriculum development, including law and popular culture.

She studied philosophy as an undergraduate and as a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at UC Berkeley, before attending law school. Upon graduation from law school, she clerked for the Hon. Lourdes G. Baird of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Education

LLM (taxation), summa cum laude, University of San Francisco School of Law
JD, Order of the Coif, UCLA School of Law
AB, magna cum laude (philosophy), Harvard-Radcliffe College

Courses Taught

Property
Evidence
Professional Responsibility

Publications/Research Listings

Book

A CALIFORNIA COMPANION FOR THE COURSE IN WILLS, TRUSTS, & ESTATES 2025-2026 (with Susan F. French) (Aspen 2025)

Book Chapters

Commentary, Taylor v. Canterbury, in FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN PROPERTY OPINIONS (Cambridge University Press: 2021)

A Friendship Model of Sex, Polyamory, and Plural Marriage, in BEYOND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE (2016) (Ronald C. Den Otter, ed.)

Articles

A Hair Cut, 18 DREXEL L. R. __ (forthcoming 2026)

PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980), and the Erasure of Zionist Activism, 2 J. CRITICAL STUD. ZIONISM __ (forthcoming November 2025) (peer-reviewed)

Illness/Wellness, Ableism & Perfectibility in the Tax Code, __ UMKC L. R. __ (forthcoming 2025-2026)

Uncovering Sex/Gender Bias in The Revision of Internal Revenue Code Sections 213(d) and 104(a)(2), __ PITT. TAX L. REV. __ (forthcoming 2025)

An Elective Share Approach to Post-Mortem Enforcement of Child Support Agreements, 17 DREXEL L. R. 1059 (2025)

Foreword, 3rd Annual Law vs. Antisemitism Conference Symposium, 19 FIU L.R. 635 (2025)

Reforming the Medical Expense Income Tax Deduction to Better Reflect "Crip Time", 58 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM CAVEAT 1 (2025)

After Sveen v. Melin, Is There a Contracts Clause Argument Against Laws Retroactively Terminating Child Support Obligations After the Death of the Obligor Parent?, 50 ACTEC L.J. (2024)

Pro-Natalism in Probate Law, 74 AMER. U. L.R. 367 (2024)

Foreword, Symposium on Succession, 73 DEPAUL L.R. 747 (2024)

“You’re Doing TV Wrong!”: A Case Study of Succession For How (and Why) to Watch Television as a Law Professor (or Law Student), 73 DEPAUL L.R. 869 (2024)

Do Black Taxpayers Matter? A Critical Tax Analysis of IRS Audit Practices, 20 STANFORD J. C.R. & C.L. 130 (2024)

Using a “Moves to Innocence” Approach to Dissect and Debunk the Claim that Critical Race Theory is Antisemitic, 27 LEWIS & CLARK L.R. 1145 (2024)

Foreword: 2022 Law vs. Antisemitism Symposium, 11 INDIANA J. L. & SOC. EQUALITY 190 (2023)

When Gender-Affirming Care Becomes Illegal, Will It (Still) Be Tax-Deductible?, 25 GEORGETOWN J. GENDER & L. 83 (2023)

When Gender-Affirming Health Becomes Illegal, Will It (Still) Be Tax-Deductible?, 42 ABA TAX TIMES (September 21, 2023)

Almost Citing Slavery: Townshend v. Townshend in Wills & Trusts Casebooks, 84 UNIV. PITT. ONLINE (2023)

A Genre-Based Critique of Law School Casebooks, 60 WILLAMETTE L.R. 37 (2023)

Redressing the Loss of Slave-Era Trees: Evans v. Bedsole and What Louisiana Timber Trespass Law Can’t Do, 49 ECOLOGY L. CURRENTS [UC Berkeley] 52 (December 8, 2022)

Teaching Critical Tax: What, Why, and How, 19 PITTSBURGH TAX R. 143 (Spring 2022)

Three Steps to Stop Citing Slavery, 71 J. LEG. ED. 348 (2022)

Their Slavery Was Her Freedom: Racism and the Beginning of the End of Coverture, 59 DUQUESNE L.R. 106 (2021)

Emancipation Un-Locke’d: Partus Sequitur Ventrem, Self-Ownership, and “No Middle State” in Maria v. Surbaugh, 20 MD. L. J. RACE, RELIGION, GENDER & CLASS 73 (2020)

Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Closing the Racial Estate-Planning Gap by Ending the Ban on Live Person-To-Person Solicitation, 44 J. LEG. PROF. 3 (2020)

Co-Living Assessed in a Time of COVID-19: Critical Intervention or Millennial Fad?, 14 U. ST. THOMAS (MN) J. L. & PUBLIC POL’Y 155 (2020) (housing law)

U.S. v. Davis and Prof. Cain’s Rewritten Opinion: An Intersectional Argument for Capping Section 1041, 16 PITTSBURGH TAX R. 142 (2019)

How To Do Things With Wills, 32 WHITTIER L. R. 455 (2011)

Plural Marriage and Community Property Law, 41 GOLDEN GATE U. L.R. 33 (2010)

Go West, Disappointed Heir: Tortious Interference With Expectation of Inheritance – A Survey With Analysis of State Approaches in the Pacific States, 13 LEWIS & CLARK L. R. 209 (2009)

Housingdiscrimination.com?: The Ninth Circuit (Mostly) Puts Out the Welcome Mat for Fair Housing Act Suits Against Roommate-Matching Websites (with Charles Doskow), 38 GOLDEN GATE U. L.R. 329 (Winter 2008)

River Deep, Mountain High, Heir Disappointed: Tortious Interference With Expectation of Inheritance – A Survey With Analysis of State Approaches in the Mountain States, 45 IDAHO L. R. 1 (2008)

Latino Masculinities Under the Microscope: Stereotyping and Counterstereotyping on Five Seasons of CSI: Miami, 3 FIU L.R. 395 (2008)

Naming and Framing the “Subject” of Antebellum Slave Contracts: Introducing Julia, “A Certain Negro Slave,” “A Man,” Joseph, Eliza, and Albert, 9 RUTGERS RACE & L. REV. 247 (2008)

Paying Eliza: Comity, Contracts, and Critical Race Theory - 19th Century Choice of Law Doctrine and the Validation of Antebellum Contracts for the Purchase and Sale of Human Beings, 20 NATIONAL BLACK L. J. [Columbia] 1 (2008)

Legal Research? And Writing? In a Property Class?, 14 PERSPECTIVES: TEACHING LEGAL RESEARCH & WRITING 1 (2005)

A Disappointed Yankee in Connecticut (or Nearby) Probate Court:Tortious Interference With Expectation of Inheritance – A Survey With Analysis of State Approaches in the First, Second, and Third Circuits, 66 UNIV. PITT. L. R. 235 (Winter 2004)

The Disappointed Heir’s Revenge, Southern Style: Tortious Interference With Expectation of Inheritance – A Survey With Analysis of State Approaches in the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, 55 BAYLOR L. R. 79 (Winter 2003)

Revenge of the Disappointed Heir: Tortious Interference With Expectation of Inheritance – A Survey With Analysis of State Approaches in the Fourth Circuit, 104 W. VA. L. R. 259 (Winter 2002)

A Will-Drafting Exercise, The Law Teacher 9 (Fall 2002)

Ally McBeal and Her Sisters: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Representations of Women Lawyers on Prime-Time Television, 18 LOYOLA L.A. ENTERTAINMENT L.J. 259 (1998)

Pregnancy Discrimination in Show Business: Tylo v. Spelling Entertainment Group, 4 UCLA ENTERTAINMENT L. R. 219 (1997)

Moral Accountability and the Estate Tax Lawyer, 6 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS 27 (1997)

Distorted Reasoning: Gender, Risk-Aversion, and Negligence Law, 30 SUFFOLK UNIV. L. R. 629 (1997)