Northwestern Pritzker Law Honors Professor Marshall Shapo With Online Festschrift

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the Northwestern University Law Review are proud to honor Marshall S. Shapo, the Frederick P. Vose Professor of Law Emeritus, with an online Festschrift recognizing his achievements.

The collection of writings honor the work of Shapo’s decades-long career at Northwestern, specifically his status as the nationally renowned expert on torts and products liability law. “Professor Shapo has published and lectured prolifically on these topics during his impressive 50-year academic career, including over 40 years on the Northwestern faculty,” Samantha Greenky, senior online editor for the Northwestern University Law Review, said in the official website announcement. “It is with great appreciation that we have assembled an illustrious group of Professor Shapo’s colleagues for this Festschrift to honor his contributions to scholarship, legal education, and the legal profession.” The eight essays include contributions from scholars including Robert Rabin of Stanford Law School, Catherine Sharkey of NYU School of Law, and Wendy Wagner of University of Texas Law School. 

James Pfander, Owen L. Coon Professor of Law, also contributed to the project. “I am delighted to participate in this Festschrift for Professor Marshall Shapo—friend, colleague, and leading figure in constitutional torts,” Pfander wrote in “Constitutional Torts and the Problem of Government Policy: An Essay for Marshall Shapo.” Pfander continues: “Professor Shapo’s paper, Constitutional Tort: Monroe v. Pape, and the Frontiers Beyond, has been credited with coining the term that now defines the field. How fitting that the paper appeared in the Northwestern University Law Review at the very dawn of Professor Shapo’s career as a law professor…we now celebrate Professor Shapo’s work in the pages of the same Law Review.”

“These fantastic essays are a testament to Marshall’s important and impactful work,” says Interim Dean James Speta. “His contributions to not only Northwestern, but to the law community as a whole, over the last several decades have been truly extraordinary.”

Shapo joined the Northwestern Law faculty in 1978. He is a nationally recognized authority on torts and products liability law, and has written and edited over 25 books on the matter. Before his appointment to the Law School faculty in 1978, he was Joseph M. Hartfield Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and a member of the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law. Shapo has been a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University (1975), and twice at Wolfson College, Cambridge University (1992 and 2001). At Northwestern Pritzker Law, he teaches courses and seminars in torts, the law of dangerous products, and science and the legal system.