UC Law lecture focuses on individual opinion vs. collective wisdom

Ward Farnsworth, dean and John Jeffers Research Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, will give insights about the rightful relationship between individual opinions and collective wisdom in the American legal system in the lecture “Restating the Law: Lessons from the Front Lines”. The event will be held at 12:15 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 16, in Room 114 at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

Farnsworth was reporter for the most recent Restatement of Torts, an influential treatise used by attorneys and judges that synthesizes general principles from tort cases.  In his upcoming lecture, he will discuss the sometimes-contested role of writers of Restatements.  He also will examine when a reporter should fight for his own opinion or defer and draw lessons to be used in broader legal and political practice.

Meet the lecturer:

Before his appointment as dean of the University of Texas School of Law, Farnsworth taught for 15 years at the Boston University School of Law, where he also served as associate dean for Academic Affairs. Farnsworth is a reporter for the American Law Institute's Restatement (Third) Torts: Liability for Economic Harm. He is author of Restitution: Civil Liability for Unjust Enrichment, The Legal Analyst, and Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric.

He has published scholarly articles on a range of topics in the Columbia Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and various other journals. He teaches courses on torts, contracts, civil procedure, admiralty, and rhetoric. Farnsworth graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School in 1994, and afterwards served as a law clerk to Anthony M. Kennedy, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and to Richard A. Posner, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He has also served as legal adviser to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in the Hague.