Paul A. LeBel
Dean & Professor of Law
lebel@law.und.edu
Dean LeBel joined the School of Law as Dean in May 2004. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Florida College of Law, and earned his B.A. in American Literature from George Washington University in 1971. He served in the United States Air Force from 1971 to 1975.
Dean LeBel's primary scholarly interest is in the field of tort and personal injury law, including products liability, workers' compensation, and the relationship between tort law and the First Amendment. He has also taught and written about law and American literature.
Before coming to North Dakota, he had served as Dean and been on the faculty of the Florida State University College of Law. He was on the faculty of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary from 1982 to 1997, and the University of Alabama School of Law from 1978 to 1982. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Illinois and the University of Richmond.
LEGAL ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
EDUCATION
MILITARY SERVICE
PUBLICATIONS
ADDRESSES AND PAPER PRESENTATIONS
PROFESSIONAL AND BAR AFFILIATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
LEGAL ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
University of North Dakota
School of Law
Dean and Professor of Law, Since 2004
Courses:
Torts, Products Liability, Worker's Compensation
Florida State University
College of Law
Professor of Law, 1998-2004
Dean and Professor of Law, 1997-1998
Courses:
Torts, Products Liability, Mass Tort Litigation, Workers' Compensation, Tort Law & Theory Seminar, Law in the Literature of Britain & Ireland (Oxford Summer Program)
University of Richmond
T. C. Williams School of Law
Visiting Professor of Law, 1999-2000
College of William and Mary
Marshall-Wythe School of Law
James Goold Cutler Professor of Law, 1990-1997
Professor of Law, 1985-1990
Associate Professor of Law, 1983-1985
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, 1982-1983
Courses:
Torts, Products Liability, Injury Compensation Systems, Jurisprudence,
Law and American Literature, Civil Procedure
University of Alabama
School of Law
Associate Professor of Law, 1981-1983
Assistant Professor of Law, 1978-1981
University of Illinois
College of Law
Visiting Professor of Law, Spring 1991
Graduate Teaching Fellow, 1977-1978
University of Florida
College of Law
Legal Writing Instructor, Summer 1977
EDUCATION
J.D. (with highest honors), 1977
University of Florida
Class Rank: 1
Order of the Coif, Phi Kappa Phi
Joseph Gersten Award (outstanding graduate)
Corpus Juris Secundum Awards and Book Awards (eleven)
A.B., 1971
The George Washington University
Major: American Literature
MILITARY SERVICE
United States Air Force
Air Weather Service
Stationed in Illinois; South Carolina; Suffolk, England
1971-1975
PUBLICATIONS
I. Law Review Articles
Size Matters
38 UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO LAW REVIEW 557
Symposium: Leadership in Legal Education - 2006
The Stewardship of Lawyering: Lessons from a Visit to Wendell Berry's Port William
34 LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO LAW JOURNAL 815-843
Summer 2003
Misdirecting Myths: The Legal and Cultural Significance of Distorted History in Popular Media
37 WAKE FOREST LAW REVIEW 1035-1072
December 2002
Toward Justice in Tobacco Policymaking: A Critique of Hanson and Logue and An Alternative Approach to the Costs of Cigarettes
(with Richard C. Ausness)
33 GEORGIA LAW REVIEW 693-812
Spring 1999
Introduction to the Transcript of the Florida Tobacco Litigation Symposium -- Putting the 1997 Settlement Into Context
25 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 731-736
Summer 1998
Beginning the Endgame: The Search for an Injury Compensation System Alternative to Tort Liability for Tobacco-Related Harms
24 NORTHERN KENTUCKY LAW REVIEW 457-494
Summer 1997
"Of Deaths Put On By Cunning and Forced Cause": Reality Bites the Tobacco Industry
Review Essay of RICHARD KLUGER, ASHES TO ASHES, PHILIP HILTS, SMOKESCREEN, & STANTON GLANTZ ET AL. THE CIGARETTE PAPERS
38 WILLIAM AND MARY LAW REVIEW 605-648
January 1997
The Constitutional Interest in Getting the News: Toward a First Amendment Protection from Tort Liability for Surreptitious News Gathering
4 WILLIAM AND MARY BILL OF RIGHTS JOURNAL 1145-1163
Summer 1996
The Bases Are Loaded and It's Time to Get a Restraining Order: The Confounding Conflation of America's Two National Pastimes
17 NOVA LAW REVIEW 813-816
Winter 1993
[reprinted in BASEBALL AND THE AMERICAN LEGAL MIND, SPENCER WALLER, NEIL COHEN & PAUL FINKELMAN, EDS., Garland Publishing Co. 1995]
Legal Education and the Theater of the Absurd: "Can't Anybody Play This Here Game?"
1992 BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 413-425
Spring 1992
Reducing the Recovery of Avoidable "Seat-Belt Damages": A Cure for the Defects of Waterson v. General Motors Corporation
22 SETON HALL LAW REVIEW 4-34
Fall 1991
Rights-Talk and Torts-Talk: A Commentary on the Road Not Taken in the Intellectual History of Tort Law
41 CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEW 811-821
Spring 1991
Emotional Distress, The First Amendment, and "This Kind of Speech": A Heretical Perspective on Hustler Magazine v. Falwell
60 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO LAW REVIEW 315-356
Spring 1989
An Interested Response to a "Wholly Disinterested Assessment": LeBel on Summers on LeBel on Summers on ... Er ... Um ... Oh, Yeah ... Fuller
85 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 1914-1924
August 1987
Reforming the Tort of Defamation: An Accommodation of the Competing Interests Within the Current Constitutional Framework
66 NEBRASKA LAW REVIEW 249-319
Spring 1987
[excerpted in GARVEY & SCHAUER, THE FIRST AMENDMENT: A READER
WEST PUBLISHING CO. 1992 pp. 278-283 2d edition 1996 pp. 318-323]
The Good, The Bad, and The Press
Review Essay of RODNEY SMOLLA, SUING THE PRESS
1986 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 1074-1088
December 1986
Legal Positivism and Federalism: The Certification Experience
19 GEORGIA LAW REVIEW 999-1040
Summer 1985
Blame This Messenger: Summers on Fuller
Review Essay of ROBERT S. SUMMERS, LON L. FULLER
83 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 717-731
February 1985
The Infliction of Harm Through the Publication of Fiction: Fashioning A Theory of Liability
51 BROOKLYN LAW REVIEW 281-354
Winter 1985
Defamation and the First Amendment: The End of the Affair
25 WILLIAM AND MARY LAW REVIEW 779-790
August 1984
1983 Eleventh Circuit Survey - Administrative Law
35 MERCER LAW REVIEW 1029-1067
Summer 1984
Standing After Havens Realty: A Critique and an Alternative Framework for Analysis
1982 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 1013-1052
December 1982
Toward a Neo-Instrumentalist Tort Law
Review Essay of STUART SPEISER, LAWSUIT
76 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 838-853
December 1981
Intent and Recklessness as Bases of Products Liability: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward
32 ALABAMA LAW REVIEW 31-68
Fall 1980
II. Books
Products Liability Problems - 1996 Edition
(with David G. Owen and Mary J. Davis)
Problem Supplement to OWEN, MONTGOMERY & KEETON, CASES AND MATERIALS ON PRODUCTS LIABILITY AND SAFETY (3d Edition 1996) (plus Teacher's Manual)
Foundation Press 1996
Products Liability Problems - 1995 Edition
(with David G. Owen and Michael D. Green)
Problem Supplement to KEETON, OWEN, MONTGOMERY & GREEN, CASES AND MATERIALS ON PRODUCTS LIABILITY AND SAFETY (2d Edition 1989) (plus Teacher's Manual)
Foundation Press 1995
John Barleycorn Must Pay: Compensating the Victims of Drinking Drivers
The University of Illinois Press 1992
III. Contributions to Books
Giving Voice to Anger: The Role of the Lawyer in THE SWEET HEREAFTER
chapter in SCREENING JUSTICE: THE CINEMA OF LAW
Rennard Strickland & Teree Foster, editors
2006 (forthcoming)
Contributor to LAW IN LITERATURE: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LAW-RELATED WORKS
Elizabeth V. Gemmette, editor
Annotations on The Pioneers, Guard of Honor, Word of Honor, Paris Trout, Knight's Gambit, The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion, A Map of the World, A City on a Hill, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Kennedy for the Defense, Penance for Jerry Kennedy, Defending Billy Ryan, Jack Gance, The Bean Trees, The Executioner's Song, Killing Mister Watson, The Octopus, The Warden, Native Son
Whitston Publishing Company 1998
[excerpts in 20 LEGAL STUDIES FORUM 431, 433 (1996)]
Gil Hodges
Entry in AMERICAN NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Oxford University Press 1998
IV. Professional and Bar Journal Articles
Strengths and Challenges
Vol. 53, No. 3 THE GAVEL 23, August 2006
Mentoring
Vol. 53, No. 2 THE GAVEL 12, May 2006
Looking to the Next Generations
Vol. 53, No. 1 THE GAVEL 12, February 2006
Law and Literature: A Different Kind of CLE Experience
Vol. 44, No. 8 VIRGINIA LAWYER 36-37
April 1996
A Doctrine by Any Other Name: The Putative Rejection of 'Crashworthiness' in Virginia Products Liability Law
Vol. 21, No. 4 VIRGINIA BAR ASSOCIATION JOURNAL 12-14
Fall 1995
Book Review of G. EDWARD WHITE, JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: LAW AND THE INNER SELF
Vol. 30, No. 5 TRIAL 82
May 1994
The Law School Expansion Draft
43 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 606-610
December 1993
Deerly, Departed
42 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 469-476
September 1992
Book Review of GERAINT G. HOWELLS, ED., PRODUCT LIABILITY, INSURANCE AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY: AN ANGLO-AMERICAN COMPARISON
Vol. 28, No. 8 TRIAL 81-83
August 1992
The Enforcement of Social Cost Internalization: An Enhanced Role for Administrative Agencies
Vol. 40, No. 11 VIRGINIA LAWYER 26-28
May 1992
Book Review of JOHN R. VILE, REWRITING THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: AN EXAMINATION OF PROPOSALS FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE PRESENT
Vol. 28, No. 2 TRIAL 81
February 1992
Book Review of BERNARD SCHWARTZ, THE NEW RIGHT AND THE CONSTITUTION
Volume 27, No. 4 TRIAL 73-75
April 1991
The Joe Isuzu Dean Search: A Guide to the Interpretation of Dean Search Announcements
(with James E. Moliterno)
39 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 265-267
June 1989
[reprinted in AMICUS HUMORIAE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL HUMOR,
JARVIS, BAKER, & MCCLURG, eds., Carolina Academic Press, 2003]
Diagnosing Posttenure Slump Syndrome: A Guide to the Aging of Law Professors
39 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 49-50
March 1989
Law Professor Trading Cards: "Has Anyone Got a Monaghan for a Tribe?"
38 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 365-368
September 1988
[reprinted in ABA STUDENT LAWYER April 1989]
Book Review of HENRY STEINER, MORAL ARGUMENT AND SOCIAL VISION IN THE COURTS: A STUDY OF TORT ACCIDENT LAW
Vol. 24, No. 6 TRIAL 95-97
June 1988
Protecting the Right to Criticize Government: A Proposal for a Symmetry of Defamation Privileges
Vol. 13, No. 4 VIRGINIA BAR ASSOCIATION JOURNAL 5-9
Fall 1987
A Guide for the Selection of Faculty Recruiters: "...Or Any First Year Course"
37 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 374-377
September 1987
A Revue of Books
35 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 299-302
June 1985
Contributory Negligence and Mitigation of Damages: Comparative Negligence Through the Back Door?
Vol. 10, No. 4 VIRGINIA BAR ASSOCIATION JOURNAL 11-16
Fall 1984
Judicial Review of Administrative Action in Alabama
42 ALABAMA LAWYER 149-160
January 1981
V. Law School and University Publications
Dean's Corner
Vol. 89, No. 4 [University of North Dakota] ALUMNI REVIEW August 2006
Tribute to a Consummate Professional
81 NORTH DAKOTA LAW REVIEW 429-431 2005
Opening Statement
Dean's Column in LAW MATTERS (UND Law School alumni magazine)
Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 2004)
Vol. 3, No. 1 (Fall/Winter 2004)
Vol. 3, No. 2 (Fall 2005/Spring 2006)
Beyond Litigation: A New Direction for Tobacco Policy
13/1 RICHMOND LAW 10-12
Spring 2000
A New Approach to Drinking Driver Accidents
1991 WILLIAM AND MARY LAWYER 22-24
Fall 1991
ADDRESSES AND PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Presentation - "God Is a Judge, Satan Is an Advocate:
The Theater of Trial in Unsworth's MORALITY PLAY"
Judicial Conference of North Dakota
Bismarck, North Dakota
November 21, 2005
Presentation -- Perceptions of Judging: Law in Literature
Judicial Conference of North Dakota
Bismarck, North Dakota
November 22, 2004
Presentation -- Images of Lawyers in Popular Culture
UND/SBAND Continuing Legal Education
Grand Forks, North Dakota
October 15, 2004
Lecture -- The Stewardship of Lawyering: Lessons from Wendell Berry's Port William
2002-2003 Lecture on Law and Literature
Loyola University of Chicago School of Law
Chicago, Illinois
October 3, 2002
Presentation -- The Claim for Enhanced Risk of Disease
Panel on Toxic Torts Today
Southeastern Conference of the Association of American Law Schools
Kiawah Island, South Carolina
August 1, 2002
Presentation -- Subversive Jurisprudence: Law in the Fiction of James Alan McPherson
Law and American Culture Section, American Culture Association
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
April 14, 2001
Symposium Organizer and Moderator -- Tobacco Litigation: New Directions for a New Millennium
University of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
February 2, 2000
Faculty Colloquium -- "You Can't Say That": The Tobacco Industry and Premature Death
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
October 28, 1999
Presentations -- Toward A Just Tobacco Policy
(with Richard C. Ausness)
Cordell Hull Speakers Forum & Faculty Workshop
Samford University, Cumberland School of Law
Birmingham, Alabama
October 22 & 23, 1998
Symposium Introductory Address and Panelist -- The Florida Tobacco Litigation: Fact, Law, Policy, and Significance
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
November 17, 1997
Symposium Paper Presenter -- Tobacco: The Growing Controversy
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights, Kentucky
April 5, 1997
Speaker -- Law and Literature: An Examination of PIGS IN HEAVEN
Law School Association Reunion
College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia
May 18, 1996
Speaker -- Malpractice Liability Implications of Managed Health Care: The Liability of Managed Care Organizations
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Norfolk, Virginia
November 30, 1995
Conference Organizer and Speaker -- Law and Lawyers in Literature
Section on Education of Lawyers, Virginia State Bar & Virginia CLE
Williamsburg, Virginia
November 3-4, 1995
Panelist -- Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Law and Literature
Southeastern Conference - Association of American Law Schools
Panama City Beach, Florida
July 22, 1995
Paper Presentation -- Testing the Effects of Alternative Tort Doctrines: States as Laboratories
(co-authored with and delivered by Roger Hanson & Neil LaFountain)
Panel on Empirical Studies of Civil Justice in State and Federal Courts
Law and Society Association
Phoenix, Arizona
June 19, 1994
Symposium Panelist -- Liability of Firearm Sellers
Institute of Bill of Rights Law
Williamsburg, Virginia
February 13, 1992
Speaker -- Volunteer Coach Liability
Virginia Special Olympics Conference
Williamsburg, Virginia
September 28, 1991
Symposium Commentator -- The Right to Privacy One Hundred Years Later
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Cleveland, Ohio
November 17, 1990
Panelist -- Libel and Free Speech
Judicial Conference, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
Keystone, Colorado
July 26, 1990
Panelist -- Constitutional Challenges to Limits on Recovery
National Institute on Medical Malpractice
American Bar Association
Williamsburg, Virginia
May 19, 1989
Conference Organizer and Moderator -- Libel on the Editorial Pages
Institute of Bill of Rights Law
Williamsburg, Virginia
November 6-7, 1987
Speaker -- A Free Press in a Republic
Christopher Newport College-Newport News Bicentennial Constitution Committee Symposium on the Constitution
Newport News, Virginia
November 2, 1987
Speaker -- Freedom of Speech
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy Series on The Supreme Court, The Bill of Rights and The Law
Williamsburg, Virginia
October 22, 1987
Moderator -- Press Responsibility
Virginia Press Association
Richmond, Virginia
January 9, 1987
Panelist -- Centers for First Amendment Research
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Norman, Oklahoma
August 5, 1986
Symposium Commentator -- Libel Law and the Press: Myth and Reality
American Newspapers Publishers Association & Institute of Bill of Rights Law
Williamsburg, Virginia
June 6, 1986
Symposium Commentator -- The Burger Court and The First Amendment
Hofstra University School of Law
Hempstead, New York
November 8, 1985
Moderator -- Legal Malpractice
The Virginia Bar Association
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
August 16, 1985
Symposium Presentation -- Defamation in Fiction
Brooklyn Law School
New York, New York
October 24, 1984
Speaker -- Defenses in Negligence Cases
Virginia General District Court Judges Conference
Williamsburg, Virginia
May 8, 1984
Symposium Commentator -- Defamation and the First Amendment
Institute of Bill of Rights Law
Williamsburg, Virginia
April 6, 1984
Speaker -- Proof of Negligence in Virginia
Virginia General District Court Judges Conference
Charlottesville, Virginia
June 7, 1983
Speaker -- Bad Faith Damages and the Frontiers of Emotional Distress
American Bar Association Appellate Judges Seminar
Williamsburg, Virginia
April 25, 1983
Speaker -- Judicial Review of Administrative Action in Alabama
Alabama Bar Institute for Continuing Legal Education
Birmingham, Alabama
November 7, 1980
PROFESSIONAL AND BAR AFFILIATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
The American Law Institute
Elected 1993
Member, Consultative Group, THIRD RESTATEMENT OF TORTS: PRODUCTS LIABILITY
Member, Consultative Group, THIRD RESTATEMENT OF TORTS: APPORTIONMENT OF LIABILITY
Member, Consultative Group, FEDERAL JUDICIAL CODE REVISION PROJECT
Member, Consultative Group, THIRD RESTATEMENT OF TORTS: LIABILITY FOR PHYSICAL HARM
Member, Consultative Group, PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF AGGREGATE LITIGATION
The American Bar Association
Member, Continuing Legal Education Committee, Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, 1996-98
State Bar Association of North Dakota
Member, Board of Governors, since 2004
Judicial Conference of North Dakota
Member, since 2004
North Dakota Bar Foundation
Board Member ex officio, since 2004
North Dakota Judicial Education Commission
Member, 3 year term beginning 1 January 2005
Greater Grand Forks County Bar Association
Member, since 2004
United Way of Grand Forks & East Grand Forks
Campaign Cabinet, 2005-2006
The Florida Bar
Admitted 1977 (Inactive Status since 1998)
Member, Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, 1997-98
The Virginia State Bar
Admitted 1987 (Associate Membership since 1998)
Member, Lawyer Referral Service Committee, 1988-89
The Virginia Bar Association
Member, 1987-1997
Member, Special Committee on Tort Reform, 1986-87
St. Thomas More Society [Tallahassee Catholic Lawyers]
Member, since 2001 (founding of organization)
Member, Steering Committee, 2003
The Justice System Journal
Member, Editorial Board, 1994-96
American Inns of Court
I'Anson-Hoffman Inn of Court, Norfolk, Virginia
Member, 1994-1996
Lawyers Cooperative Publishing
Member, Virginia Publications Advisory Committee, 1995-96
Williamsburg Bar Association
Member, 1995-97
