Professor Andrew J. McClurg is scholar and teacher in the areas of tort law, products liability, legal education, privacy law and firearms policy. He holds the Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence in Law at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.
From 2002-06, he was a member of the founding faculty at the Florida International University College of Law. Previously, he was the Nadine H. Baum Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and also has taught at Wake Forest University, the University of Colorado, and Golden Gate University.
McClurg is the recipient of numerous academic awards, including the University of Memphis 2009-10 Distinguished Teaching Award and 2009 Excellence in Legal Education Award. He’s received five other teaching awards and two law school excellence awards for scholarly publications.
Memphis Commercial Appeal article about McClurg
He’s published six books, twenty-two law review articles (in the primary law reviews of schools such as American University, Boston University, Cincinnati, Colorado, Notre Dame, Northwestern, North Carolina, Oregon, U.C.-Davis, U.C.-Hastings, and Wake Forest), and dozens of other articles. His law review articles have been cited/quoted by more than 500 law reviews, books and legal scholars, as well by many courts. List of publications.
His new book, The “Companion Text” to Law School: Understanding and Surviving Life With a Law Student (West 2012), is the first book written for the loved ones of law students: parents, partners, friends, and other relatives. As all lawyers and law students know, law school is an adventure for the whole family.
The Companion Text is a follow-up to McClurg’s law school prep book, 1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor’s Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School (West 2009), assigned as recommended or required reading at law schools throughout the country.
McClurg is Editor of an innovative series of comparative law texts from Carolina Academic Press called the Contextual Approach Series. His co-authored book, Practical Global Tort Litigation: United States, Germany, and Argentina (with Adem Koyuncu and Adem Sprovieri), was the first entry in the series.
He has been interviewed by Liane Hansen (Weekend Edition) and Neil Conan (All Things Considered) on National Public Radio, and quoted as a legal expert by Time, U.S. News and World Report, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and dozens of other media sources. As a legal commentator, he’s published op-ed columns in newspapers like the Washington Post and Miami Herald.
Prior to joining academia, McClurg served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Charles R. Scott (M.D. Fla.) and worked four years as a trial lawyer. He graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Florida College of Law and was a member of the Florida Law Review.
In humor mode (a small sideline), McClurg is author of The Law School Trip (the insider’s guide to law school) , a critically and comedically acclaimed parody of legal education that has generated reviews such as “Howlingly, gut-wrenchingly, turn purple and blow food out your nose funny!” and “Heaps and mounds of undulating and ululating laughter.”
He is co-editor of Amicus Humoriae: An Anthology of Legal Humor (Carolina Academic Press 2003), a collection of humorous law review articles.
For four years, McClurg was the monthly humor columnist for the American Bar Association Journal, the magazine of the U.S. legal profession.
In his mid-life crisis, McClurg sings and plays in Memphis oldies/classic rock bands like the Vynals and Trips.
Publications
Books
The “Companion Text” to Law School: Understanding and Surviving Life with a Law Student (West 2012).
1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor’s Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School (West 2009).
Practical Global Tort Litigation: U.S., Germany, and Argentina (Carolina Academic Press 2007) (with Adem Koyuncu and Luis Eduardo Sprovieri).
Amicus Humoriae: An Anthology of Legal Humor (Carolina Academic Press 2003) (with Robert M. Jarvis and Thomas E. Baker).
Gun Control and Gun Rights (New York University Press 2002) (with David B. Kopel and Brannon P. Denning).
The Law School Trip (the insider’s guide to law school) (Trafford 2001).
Law Review Articles
Fixing the Broken Windows of Online Privacy through Private Ordering: A Facebook Application, 1 Wake Forest Law Review Online 74 (2011) (invited submission).
Fight Club: Doctors vs. Lawyers – A Peace Plan Grounded in Self-Interest, 83 Temple Law Review 309-67 (2011).
Neurotic, Paranoid Wimps – Nothing has Changed, 78 University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review 1049-61 (2010) (“1L Stories” issue with introduction by Scott Turow, author of ONE L).
Kiss and Tell: Protecting Intimate Relationship Privacy Through Implied Contracts of Confidentiality, 74 University of Cincinnati Law Review 887-940 (2006).
Dead Sorrow: A Story About Loss and A New Theory of Wrongful Death Damages, 85 Boston University Law Review 1-51(2005).
Sound-Bite Gun Fights: Three Decades of Presidential Debating About Firearms, 73 University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review 1015-45 (2005) (invited symposium participant).
Thousand Words are Worth a Picture: A Privacy Tort Response to Consumer Data Profiling, 98 Northwestern University Law Review 63-144 (2003).
Lock, Stock and Barrel: Civil Liability for Allowing Unauthorized Access to Firearms, 14 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy 137-60 (2002) (invited submission).
The Public Health Case for the Safe Storage of Firearms: Adolescent Suicides Add One More ‘Smoking Gun’, 51 Hastings Law Journal 953-1001 (2000).
Armed and Dangerous: Tort Liability for the Negligent Storage of Firearms, 32 Connecticut Law Review 1189-1245 (2000) (invited symposium participant).
Child Access Prevention Laws: A Common Sense Approach to Gun Control, 18 St. Louis University Public Law Review 47-78 (1999) (invited symposium participant).
“Lotts” More Guns and Other Fallacies Infecting the Gun Control Debate, 11 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy 139-76 (1999) (invited submission).
Good Cop, Bad Cop: Using Cognitive Dissonance Theory to Reduce Police Lying, 32 University of California-Davis Law Review 389-453 (1999).
Poetry in Commotion: Katko v. Briney and the Bards of First-Year Torts, 74 Oregon Law Review 823-48 (1995).
The Tortious Marketing of Handguns: Strict Liability is Dead, Long Live Negligence, 19 Seton Hall Legislative Journal 777-820 (1995) (invited symposium participant).
Bringing Privacy Law Out of the Closet: A Tort Theory of Liability for Intrusions in Public Places, 73 North Carolina Law Review 989-1088 (1995).
The Rhetoric of Gun Control, 42 American University Law Review 53-113(1992).
Strict Liability for Handgun Manufacturers: A Reply to Professor Oliver, 14 University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Journal 511-29 (1992).
Handguns as Products Unreasonably Dangerous Per Se, 13 University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Journal 599-619 (1991).
It’s a Wonderful Life: The Case for Hedonic Damages in Wrongful Death Cases, 66 Notre Dame Law Review 57-116 (1990).
Your Money or Your Life: Interpreting the Federal Act Against Patient Dumping, 24 Wake Forest Law Review 173-237 (1989).
Logical Fallacies and the Supreme Court: A Critical Analysis of Justice Rehnquist’s Decisions In Criminal Procedure Cases, 59 University of Colorado Law Review 741-844 (1988).
Monthly Columnist
American Bar Association Journal, 1997-2001. Author of Harmless Error: A Truly Minority View of the Law, humor column that ran for fifty-one months on the Obiter Dicta page.
Book Chapters
Minimizing Medical Malpractice Exposure (with Robert W. Bailey and Philip M. Gerson) in The Sages Manual of Quality, Outcomes & Patient Safety, Society of Gastrointestinal & Endoscopic Surgeons (D. Tichansky et al. eds) (forthcoming 2012).
The Ten Commandments of [The First-Year Course of Your Choice] and Paying Respects to Law School’s First Year in Techniques for Teaching Law 6, 23 (Gerald F. Hess & Steve Friedland eds. 1999).
The Danger Posed by Handguns Outweighs Their Effectiveness, in Gun Control 176-81 (Bruno Leone, Bonnie Szumski, Carol Wekesser & Charles P. Cozic eds. 1992).
Other Publications
Book Review: Philip K. Howard, Life without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America (2009), 51 American Journal of Legal History ___ (forthcoming 2012).
Children of the World v. Santa Claus, in A Family Christmas 104-05 (Caroline Kennedy ed. 2007) (Christmas anthology collected by Caroline Kennedy including works by Charles Dickens, Robert Frost, Mark Twain, and many others).
Remembering Law School’s Torments, UF Law Magazine, Summer 2007, at 42-44 (University of Florida College of Law alumni magazine).
Online Lessons on Unprotected Sex, Washington Post, Aug. 15, 2005, at A15 (op-ed).
In ID Theft, Customer Becomes the Commodity, Miami Herald, May 28, 2005, at 19A (op-ed).
Book Review: Joyce Lee Malcolm, Guns and Violence: The English Experience, 46 American Journal of Legal History 507 (2004).
Why I Teach, The Law Teacher, Spring 2004, at 16.
Risky Business: The Dangers of Using Humor, Orange County Lawyer, June 2003, at 32.
The Risks of Being Funny, GPSolo, Apr. 2003, at 60 (magazine of the ABA’s General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Section).
Book Review: John Grisham, The Testament, 10 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 3 (Sept.-Oct. 1999).
Supreme Court Extends Daubert to All Expert Testimony, ATLA (Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association) Docket, Summer 1999, at 11.
Fourth Amendment Standing? – Take A Seat, ATLA Docket, Spring 1999, at 20.
Book Review: Grif Stockley, Blind Judgment, 10 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1999).
Final Footnote To Foster Tragedy: Supreme Court Recognizes Posthumous Attorney-Client Privilege, ATLA Docket, Winter 1998, at 4.
Supreme Court Gives Green Light To Police Chases, ATLA Docket, Summer 1998, at 6.
Of Mice and Men: Supreme Court Sets Standard of Review for Daubert Rulings, ATLA Docket, Spring 1998, at 6.
Ten Really Important Things To Know About Arguing In the U.S. Supreme Court, ATLA Docket, Winter 1998, at 4.
Mass Tort Class Actions: May They Rest In Pieces, ATLA Docket, Fall 1997, at 8.
Dear Employer . . ., Journal of Legal Education, June 1997, at 267.
Bryan County Commissioners v. Brown: Supreme Court Shrinks Municipal Liability for Police Brutality, ATLA Docket, Summer 1997, at 20.
Rungful Suits, A.B.A. Journal, June 1997, at 98.
A Day in the Life of Justice Antonin Scalia, ATLA Docket, Spring 1997, at 7.
A Review of the 1995-96 U.S. Supreme Court Term: The Effects on Trial Lawyers, ATLA Docket, Winter 1997, at 14.
Poetry In Commotion: Katko v. Briney and the Bards of First-Year Torts, The Law Teacher, Fall 1996, at 1.
Wheels of Misfortune: The Supreme Court Approves Pretextual Automobile Stops, ATLA Docket, Fall 1996, at 22.
BMW, Inc. v. Gore: The Supreme Court Finishes a “$2 Million Paint Job,” ATLA Docket, Summer 1996, at 4.
Blue Process: Or How I Lost my Car Because My Husband’s a Jerk, ATLA Docket, Spring 1996, at 25.
The World’s Greatest Law Review Article, A.B.A. Journal, Oct. 1995, at 84 (also published in the United Kingdom in the New Law Journal, Aug. 18, 1995, at 1274.
Selected Blog Posts
The Perilous Second Semester, Part II, Westlaw Insider Blog, Feb. 17, 2011.
The Perilous Second Semester, Part I, Westlaw Insider Blog, Feb. 1, 2011.
In Defense of the Common Law: McClurg’s Response to Moreland and Frank, TortsProf Blog, Sept. 3, 2006.
Three Things We Should Be Teaching In Torts (But Aren’t), TortsProf Blog, Aug. 28, 2006.
Humanizing Torts, TortsProf Blog, Mar. 10, 2006.
is a scholar and teacher in the areas of tort law, products liability, legal education, privacy law and firearms policy. He currently holds the Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence in Law at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.
