Raymond grew up in
New York City, where she was friends with
Elena Kagan, and graduated from
Hunter College High School in 1976. She studied at
Carleton College, where she received a
Bachelor of Arts cum laude in 1982. She attended
Columbia Law School, serving as editor-in-chief of
Columbia Law Review, and graduating first in her class with a
Juris doctor in 1985. After law school, she
clerked for Judge
James L. Oakes of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then for
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice
Thurgood Marshall in 1986–1987. Following her clerkships, she practiced law first as an associate at
Morrison & Foerster in New York City, where she worked on
litigation, and then at a criminal defense firm in
Portland, Oregon. In 1995, she joined the law faculty as associate professor at the
University of Iowa, in 1999 was promoted to professor, and in 2010 she was named the William G. Hammond Professor of Law. In 2007, she was considered for the post of dean at the
University of Buffalo Law School. In 2011, she became the Fred W. & Vi Miller dean and professor of law at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison. She followed
Kenneth B. Davis, who was dean since 1997. In 2019, her salary was $400,554. In 2018, she argued law school education benefits society, in response to
Samuel Moyn's article titled, "Law Schools Are Bad for Democracy." In January 2019, Raymond was a finalist for the position of executive vice president and provost at the University of Iowa. In April 2019, she announced the endowment of a chair at the university of
Wisconsin Law School to honor the late Professor James E. Jones Jr., the school's first African American faculty member. In spring of 2020, she stepped down from the deanship at the University of Wisconsin Law School, but remained on the faculty as the Warren P. Knowles Chair. In 2015, the second edition was published of Raymond's casebook,
The Law and Ethics of Law Practice. == Working experience ==