Marshall S. Shapo

Frederic P. Vose Professor of Law Emeritus


Biography

Marshall S. Shapo, the Frederic P. Vose Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, is a nationally recognized authority on torts and products liability law. He received an AB, summa cum laude, and LLB, magna cum laude, from the University of Miami, where he was first in his class and editor-in-chief of the University of Miami Law Review. His graduate degrees are an AM in history and an SJD, both from Harvard. Before his appointment to the Northwestern 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. Professor Shapo has been a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University (1975), and twice at Wolfson College, Cambridge University (1992 and 2001). He also served as a visiting professor at the Juristiches Seminar, University of Gottingen. In 2005 he was the principal speaker, delivering five lectures on various aspects of tort and injury law, at a seminar attended by leading European torts scholars at the University of Girona. On the same trip, he also gave talks at the Universities of Barcelona and Pisa. The year before he spoke on products liability to the Brazilian Bar Association in Rio de Janeiro. Professor Shapo teaches courses and seminars in torts, the law of dangerous products, and science and the legal system.

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Areas of Expertise

  • Consumer Law
  • Torts
  • Injury Compensation
  • Law and Social Science
  • Products Liability
  • Fraudulent and Deceptive Practices

Selected Publications

  • Compensation for Victims of Terror (Oceana Publications 2005).
  • Law School Without Fear: Strategies For Success, 2nd edition (Foundation Press 2002) (with Helene Shapo).
  • The Law of Products Liability, 4th edition (2001) with Supplements 2002-2006 (two volumes).
  • Tort and Injury Law, 3rd edition ( Carolina Academic Press 2006) (with Richard Peltz).
  • Tort Law and Culture (Carolina Academic Press 2003).

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Education

  • AB summa cum laude, University of Miami
  • LLB magna cum laude, University of Miami
  • AM, SJD, Harvard University

Prior Appointments

  • Frederic P. Vose Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Stanford Clinton Sr. Research Professor, 1997-1998, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Joseph M. Hartfield Professor of Law, Professor of Law, 1970-1978, University of Virginia
  • Professor of Law, Associate Professor of Law, Assistant Professor of Law, 1965-1970, University of Texas

Recent Consulting Activities

  • Consultant, Legal risks in manufacture and sale of anti-terror products
  • Consultant, Appeal in multi-million dollar verdict in catastrophic injury case involving swimming pool drain
  • Consultant, Liability theories in litigation over Pan Am # 103
  • Consultant, Minimizing liability concerning flammability of sleeping bags
  • Consultant, machine manufacturer on machine guarding and products liability
  • Consultant, Warranty and defect issues concerning rocket motors
  • Speaker, pharmaceutical group on A Lawyers Common Sense Ideas for Avoiding Liability in the Specification of Packaging for Medical Devices

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