Stephen Ware to give his inaugural distinguished professor lecture

LAWRENCE — Stephen Ware’s writings have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and in at least 34 other federal and state cases. The University of Kansas community has the chance to hear Ware give his inaugural distinguished professor lecture at 4 p.m. April 7 via Zoom. Attendees of the virtual event are required to register.  

Ware is the Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law at the KU School of Law. His presentation is titled “Lawmaking Judges, Government and Private.”

“In his Senate confirmation hearing to become chief justice of the United States, John Roberts likened judging to a baseball umpire impartially calling ‘balls and strikes,’ rather than trying to help any of the teams competing to make the law,” Ware wrote in a research abstract. “Roberts was expressing the common view that judges should apply the law rather than make it. Judges should not, according to this view, ‘legislate from the bench.’

“When do judges make law, and when should judges make law? Do these questions apply only to judges in our government courts or also to private-sector judges (arbitrators)?” he wrote.

A 20-year faculty member of the KU School of Law, Ware is the author of four books, 46 law review articles and many other publications. His scholarly interests include judicial selection, alternative dispute resolution such as arbitration, mediation, negotiation; and commercial law, including contracts and bankruptcy.

Ware’s career in education is preceded by a role as a clerk for the late J. Daniel Mahoney on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. He went on to practice law with the New York firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell before entering higher education.

A versatile teacher, Ware has taught at six law schools, including Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, where he was a faculty member for 10 years before joining KU in 2003 as a professor of law. He was named the Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law in 2019.

Outside the classroom, Ware actively helps KU Law students as the coach of the KU Law bankruptcy moot court team and faculty adviser to the KU Law chapter of the Federalist Society.

Ware has testified before the United States Senate and House of Representatives, state legislatures and as an expert witness in court. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Legal Education and as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.

Ware earned a bachelor’s degree in American history and political science, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an associate editor of the University of Chicago Law review.