UCL pays tribute to Dr Kimberly Liu

Dr Kimberly Liu was a PhD student at the Faculty of Laws between 2013-2018, having come to UCL after obtaining a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia, a J.D. cum laude at Harvard Law School and a M.Sc. from the LSE.  Building upon her experience working for a number of years for the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund in New York, Kimberly completed an outstanding doctorate on the topic of 'The Constitutionality of Facially Neutral Affirmative Action in the United States', passed without corrections in June 2018.

Professor Colm O’Cinneide, who supervised Kimberly’s doctoral thesis remembers her as "a wonderful person: thoughtful, caring and possessed of remarkable intelligence". He continues: "She made many friends in the Faculty, and I have no doubt that anyone who knew her will be in shock at this terrible news." 

Kimberly taught Employment Law tutorials at the Faculty for a number of years, much to the enthusiasm of our students who found her to be a really kind, insightful and sympathetic tutor.  After finishing her PhD, she taught Employment Law at the LSE and then Durham Law School.  Kimberly had deep expertise in the area of civil rights and equality law, and was a committed and hugely supportive teacher.  

Kimberly and Colm co-wrote a number of papers, including the following: 'Defining the Limits of Discrimination Law in the UK – Principle and Pragmatism in Tension’ (2014) 14(4) International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 239-265; ‘The Framework Equality Directive – Directive 2000/78/EC’, in M. Schlachter (ed.) Commentary on EU Labour Law (Kluwer, 2014), 69-113; and The Ongoing Evolution of the Case-law of the CJEU on Non-discrimination (MPG/European Commission, 2019). 

Our kindest thoughts are with Kimberly’s husband, Richard, her identical twin, Meredith, and her family. 

Professor Eloise Scotford, Dean of UCL Faculty of Laws, commented: 

"The Faculty is deeply saddened to hear of the death of Kimberly Liu, a highly talented and generous young legal academic. This is a loss felt by our entire Faculty community, and a loss for legal academia."

UCL offers support and guidance if you are personally affected by this announcement.