Stephen Gillers has been a professor of law at New York University School of Law since 1978 and vice dean from 1999-2004. He took emeritus status in September 2022. He does most of his research and writing on the regulation of the legal profession. His courses have included Regulation of Lawyers (which he continues to teach), Evidence, and Law and Literature (with University Professor Catharine Stimpson, former dean of the graduate school).

Professor Gillers has written widely on legal and judicial ethics in law reviews and in the legal and popular press. He has taught legal ethics as a visitor at other law schools and has spoken on lawyer regulatory issues at hundreds of events in the US and in Europe, Asia, and South America—often for legal ethics CLE credit—including at federal and state judicial conferences, law firms, corporate general counsel's offices, government law offices, ABA meetings, state and city bar meetings nationwide, in oral and written submissions to Congress, and in law school lectureships. For many years, five times each year, he has been lecturing on legal ethics at New York City Bar Association CLEs.

From 2000-2002, Professor Gillers was a member of the ABA's Multijurisdictional Practice Commission which proposed rule changes (all of them accepted) to recognize the cross-border nature of legal practice. Professor Gillers was a member of the ABA 20/20 Commission, 2010-2013, which studied the effects of technology and globalization on the regulation of lawyers leading to amendments to the Model Rules and recommended rule changes, all of which were accepted.

In 2011, he received the Michael Franck Award from the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility. The Award is given annually for “significant contributions to the work of the organized bar….noteworthy scholarly contributions made in academic settings, [and] creative judicial or legislative initiatives undertaken to advance the professionalism of lawyers…are also given consideration.” The American Bar Foundation gave him the Outstanding Scholar Award in 2015.