University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

The urban public law school with a small liberal arts feel

Associate Dean Jeffrey E. Thomas Professor of Law; B.A. (Loyola Marymount University); J.D. (University of California at Berkeley School of Law-Boalt Hall) email 816-235-2378 Vita Associate Dean Thomas joined the UMKC Law Faculty in 1993. He has taught Alternative Compensation Systems (advanced Tort), Appellate Advocacy, Civil Procedure, Economics and the Law, Environmental and Toxic Torts, Federal Jurisdiction, and Insurance Law. He was co-advisor to the Moot Court Program from 1993-1999. He is currently working with the school’s LLM Program for International Students and in that program teaches Introduction to Law and Lawyering, Introduction to American Law and Legal Culture, and Introduction to American Legal Skills. Dean Thomas received the Elmer P. Pierson Outstanding Teaching Award in 1997, was a Fulbright Fellow teaching law in China during the 1999-2000 academic year, and was the Tierra M. Farrow Faculty Scholar from 2001-2003. He was appointed Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs for the Campus in 2003, but returned full-time to the Law School in 2007. Dean Thomas' research focuses on insurance law and on law the intersection between law and culture. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the recently-published three-volulme New Appleman Insurance Law Practice Guide, and is co-author of a three-volume treatise on Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Insurance. Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, Dean Thomas has developed expertise on terrorism and insurance, and has published a number of recent articles on that topic in the U.S., Asia and Russia. His most recent law and culture project is a book on Harry Potter and the Law, which should be released in 2008. For a listing of his recent publications, follow this link. Dean Thomas serves in several leadership positions with various law and insurance-related organizations: President of the Asia Pacific Risk and Insurance Association (2007-08), member of the Task Force on Federal Involvement in Insurance Regulation Modernization of the Tort and Insurance Section of the ABA, member of the Board of the Kansas City Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, member of the Board of the Insurance Law Center, and member of the Board of Directors of the Lawyers Association of Kansas City. Before joining the faculty, Dean Thomas spent five years practicing law in Southern California with the law firm Irell & Manella. He worked on civil litigation and insurance coverage matters. Prior to practicing law, he was a law clerk to M. Joseph Blumenfeld of the Federal District Court in Hartford, Connecticut. Dean Thomas attended the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) for law school, where he was an Executive Editor on the California Law Review, an Associate Editor for the Industrial Relations Law Journal, and invited to join the Moot Court Board. As an undergraduate, Dean Thomas studied Political Science at Loyola Marymount University, but he spent most of his time in college engaged in intercollegiate debate. Dean Thomas is married to Karin Thomas, and they have four children. His leisure interests include family and church activities, reading, travel, food (cooking and eating), backpacking, and supporting debate at his son’s high school and in Urban Debate League in the Kansas City area. You can access my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=288608