Baroness Ruth Deech taught law at the University of Oxford (specialising in family and property law) until she was elected Principal of St Anne’s College (1991 to 2004). She was chair for 7 years of the UK Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority, a national committee charged with regulating assisted reproductive treatments and embryo research, and oversaw the legalisation of stem cell research. She was a Governor of the BBC (2002-2006) and a Rhodes Scholarships Trustee (1996-2006). She was called to the Bar and is an honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple. Appointed Honorary Queen’s Counsel 2013.

From 2004 to 2008 she was the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education for England and Wales, the national campus ombudsman for 147 universities.  In 2008 she was appointed Gresham Professor of Law, London.  In 2009 she was appointed chair of the Bar Standards Board, regulating barristers, their training, conduct and practice. In 2009 she completed a report for the Department of Health on Women Doctors – Making a Difference.

She was created a life peer in 2005 and sits in the House of Lords as a non-party legislator.  She is a member of the Lords Communications Select Committee which considers the media and the creative industries.

She is a patron of the Community Security Trust, and a trustee of the Roth Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Tel Aviv University.  She was a governor of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and a member of the Commission on the Representation of British Jewry 1998.  In 2002 she was Jewish Care Woman of Distinction.