Ward Farnsworth

Nancy E. Barton Scholar, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

BA, Wesleyan University; JD, with high honors, University of Chicago Law School

Interests: economic analysis; jurisprudence; tort law; constitutional law; rhetoric

After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1994, Ward Farnsworth worked as a law clerk to Richard A. Posner, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and to Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In 1996, he served as a legal adviser to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. Professor Farnsworth joined the BU Law faculty in 1997 and now teaches courses on civil procedure, tort law and rhetoric. “When I entered this profession, I hoped that I would be at a school where teaching was an important focus for faculty, not an afterthought,” he says. “Nowhere is that more true than here. Teaching is every bit as important a part of our mission as scholarship. It’s an easy commitment to make because the students here are terrific; they’re smart, interesting people who are excited about learning and are preparing to do important things when they leave.”

The University of Chicago Press recently published Professor Farnsworth’s book, The Legal Analyst, a manual that examines analytical methods and the process of legal thought for lawyers. He also is the author of a book about rhetoric that will be published in early 2009 and a treatise on chess that is available on the Internet. He is the co-author of Torts: Cases and Questions, a casebook published in 2004 by Aspen Law & Business.