University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

The urban public law school with a small liberal arts feel

Allen Rostron Associate Professor of Law email 816-235-2267 Vita Professor Allen Rostron joined the faculty in 2003. He came to UMKC from Washington D.C., where he served as Senior Staff Attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and helped to lead a nationwide litigation effort against the gun industry. Professor Rostron’s clients included two dozen major cities and counties that brought lawsuits against gun manufacturers. Other cases that Professor Rostron helped to litigate on behalf of individual shooting victims and their families included Merrill v. Navegar, a case brought against the maker of two TEC-9 military-style assault pistols used in a mass shooting in the offices of a San Francisco law firm; Dix v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp., the first case in U.S. history to go to a jury on claims that a gun was defective in design because it lacked safety features that would have prevented its unauthorized use by a child; Anderson v. Bryco Arms, a case brought by victims of a white supremacist’s shooting rampage against racial and religious minorities; and Grunow v. Valor Corp., a case brought by the widow of a seventh-grade teacher in Florida killed in his classroom by a thirteen-year-old student. Professor Rostron has made frequent appearances on radio and television programs, such as Fox News and Oliver North’s radio show, discussing gun control, the Second Amendment, and lawsuits against the gun industry. After receiving his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was the book review editor of the Yale Law Journal, Professor Rostron served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas S. Ellis III, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Early in his career, Professor Rostron managed antitrust, contract and securities cases as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York City. Professor Rostron is the author of numerous law journal articles including "Beyond Market Share Liability: A Theory of Proportional Share Liability for Non-Fungible Products," published in the UCLA Law Review in October 2004. Other articles by Professor Rostron have appeared in the California Law Review, the Law Review of Michigan State University, the New England Law Review, the Journal of Health Care Law & Policy, Tax Lawyer, Tax Notes, Trial, the Hastings Communications & Entertainment Law Journal, and the Journal of Popular Film & Television. Professor Rostron teaches, studies, and writes in the areas of tort law, products liability, constitutional law, and conflict of laws. You can access my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=357045