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David W. Case

Professor of Law and Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Distinguished Lecturer

Professor Case regularly teaches Contracts, Contract Negotiation and Drafting, Civil Procedure, Property, Administrative Law, and Environmental Law

Professor Case joined the University of Mississippi School of Law faculty in 2007, following six years of service on the faculty of the University of Memphis School of Law. Professor Case has been a member of the Mississippi Bar since 1988 and has served on the Mississippi Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules since 2017. In 2019, he was named one of “Mississippi’s Leading Attorneys” by the Mississippi Business Journal.

Professor Case earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Mississippi. As a student at Ole Miss Law, he was on the executive editorial board of the Mississippi Law Journal, served as chair of the Honor Council, and was selected for membership in the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi. He received his LL.M. from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Interdisciplinary Studies: Environmental Law, Management and Policy. While in residence at Vanderbilt, Professor Case was a Bridgestone Americas Fellow in Environmental Management and a senior research associate with the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies.

Prior to his academic career, Professor Case was a judicial clerk for two federal judges – the Honorable Rhesa H. Barksdale of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1991-92) and the Honorable James C. Sumner of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi (1993-94). He was also a partner in the Jackson, Mississippi law firm of Ott & Purdy and previously an attorney in the Civil Division (Commercial Litigation Branch) of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

Professor Case’s legal scholarship primarily focuses on environmental regulation and management. His articles have appeared in the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum, the Emory Law Journal, the Environmental Law Reporter, the Mississippi College Law Review, the Mississippi Law Journal, the University of Colorado Law Review, the University of Memphis Law Review, the Washington & Lee Law Review, and the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review. He co-authored the book Environmental Law with colleague Professor Ron Rychlak, part of the Legal Almanac Series: Thomson Reuters’ Law for the Layperson (re-released by West Publishing following original publication by Oxford University Press). His second book Mississippi Real Property Law and Practice will be published by Matthew Bender & Company in 2024.

Professor Case coached teams in the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition in White Plains, New York, for nearly two decades. His Ole Miss Law teams won five championships at the NELMCC (in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016). In 2020, he published an article on his experiences coaching moot court – A Pedagogical Rationale for the Law Professor as Moot Court Coach – in the Mississippi Law Journal.

Professor Case met his wife Catherine when both were first-year students at Ole Miss Law. Between the two of them and their four children – Veronica, Jane Costner, Sarah Catherine, and Sam – they have 11 degrees from the University of Mississippi.

Education

Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
LL.M., Columbia University
J.D., University of Mississippi
B.A., University of Mississippi