University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

The urban public law school with a small liberal arts feel

Click here for the Supreme Court Petition to Decision web site. David Jacks Achtenberg Law Foundation Scholar and Professor of Law; B.A. (Harvard University); J.D. (University of Chicago Law School) email 816-235-2382 Vita David Jacks Achtenberg, Law Foundation Scholar and Professor of Law at UMKC, received his bachelor of arts degree with honors from Harvard University in 1970 and his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973. While at Chicago, he was the winner of the Osgood Hall Moot Court Competition, and he declined service on the Law Review to work for the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. Professor Achtenberg is the third generation of his family to practice law in Missouri. From 1973 until joining the faculty as a visiting professor in 1988, Professor Achtenberg was in private practice in Kansas City with an emphasis in civil rights, employment law, and bankruptcy matters. He represented clients in courts and administrative agencies ranging from the United States Supreme Court to the former Magistrate Court of Jackson County, Missouri. He was named one of the best lawyers in America in two separate fields: First Amendment Law and Labor & Employment Law. Since joining the faculty, Professor Achtenberg has been chosen to receive the Daniel L. Brenner Faculty Publishing Award three times, has been voted the Law School's outstanding professor twice, and has received the Elmer F. Pierson Teaching Award. He is a member of the Missouri Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, and frequently gives CLE presentations on Missouri Civil Procedure. In 2009, he received the Spurgeon Smithson Award from the Missouri Bar for "outstanding service toward the increase and diffusion of justice" in Missouri. He was also recognized by the Daily Record as one of two 2009 Legal Leaders / Legal Scholars. Achtenberg’s research focuses on the intersection between civil rights and legal history. After spending a number of years writing about the nineteenth century contemporaneous understanding of some of our most important civil rights statutes, he is currently focusing his efforts on the internal workings of the Supreme Court in significant cases interpreting those statutes. (For an inside look at the how the Court decided one such case, click here and browse through the justice’s internal papers by going to the timeline_page.) Professor Achtenberg currently teaches Civil Procedure I & II, Missouri Civil Procedure, Civil Rights Litigation, the Seminar on the Supreme Court, and a mini-term course on the Missouri Supreme Court. He also coaches the law school's client counseling team and supervises the school’s court internship program. In previous years, he taught Evidence, Contracts, Remedies, Lawyering Skills, and Constitutional Law. Professor Achtenberg lives in Kansas City with his wife, Alice Jacks. They have two daughters: Miriam who practices law in Massachusetts and Rebecca who is a high school senior in Kansas City. You can access selected papers at the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=83670