University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers is being awarded for his work in tort law with one of the field’s most prestigious prizes.
Powers is the 2012 co-recipient of the John G. Fleming Memorial Prize for Torts Scholarship.
Powers, former dean of The University of Texas School of Law, won the joint award for a large body of work, including his “Restatement Third, Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm,“ written with Wake Forest professor Michael D. Green for the American Law Institute. Green is also receiving the award.
Current law school dean Ward Farnsworth described Powers as a “major figure in modern American torts scholarship.”
Calling “Restatement” one of the most important works in the field, which includes law relating to personal injury and emotional damages, Farnsworth touted Powers as a worthy recipient. “It’s great to see him getting much-deserved recognition with this very prestigious prize.”
Powers continues to write and publish legal works. He is also a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, as well as the Hines H. Baker and Thelma Kelley Baker Chair in Law at the School of Law.
The prize is named for John Fleming, a prominent legal professor at the University of California, Berkeley, journal editor and respected tort expert. Proceeds from two books published posthumously were used to establish the prize.
Powers and Green join only five others who won the biennial award in its first 10 years. They will jointly deliver the Fleming Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law on Monday, Nov. 5.
The prize represents the second national honor in recent weeks for Powers, who was recently elected vice chair of the Association of American Universities, a group of the most respected research universities in the U.S. and Canada.
