Professor Ronald J. Rychlak is Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi, School of Law, where he has been on the faculty since 1987. He also serves as the university’s Faculty Athletic Representative. He is a graduate of Wabash College (BA, cum laude) and Vanderbilt University (JD, Order of the Coif). Prior to joining the faculty, Ron practiced law with Jenner & Block in Chicago, and he served as a clerk to Hon. Harry W. Wellford of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ron is an advisor to the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations and a member of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He is on the committee appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to revise the state’s criminal code, and he serves on the editorial board of The Gaming Law Review. He is also on the Board of Advisors for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the Board of Governors for Ave Maria School of Law, and the Advisory Board of the International Solidarity and Human Rights Institute.

In 2004, the U.S. State Department sent Ron to Paris to address the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe regarding the importance of free speech on the Internet. In 2005 he was named as an Academic Fellow in Terrorism Studies by the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies, and he attended an associated program in Israel. In 2005 and 2006 he was involved in international diplomatic talks regarding peace in the Middle-East. In 2006 the Society of Catholic Social Scientists awarded him the Blessed Frederic Ozanam Award for Social Action, and in 2007 he was an honoree at the U.S. Holocaust Museum for his work with on inter-faith dialogue.

Ron is the author or co-author of seven books, including Real and Demonstrative Evidence: Applications and Theory (1995, 2nd ed., 2003), the third edition of which will soon be released. Lawyers Weekly USA called that book a “very valuable resource for lawyers looking to stay on top of their changing world.” The Weekly Standard called his book, Hitler, the War, and the Pope, “the best and most careful of the recent works [on the Church during World War II], an elegant tome of serious, critical scholarship.” Ron has also contributed chapters to several books and entries to several encyclopedias. He has been published in the Mississippi Law Journal, Notre Dame Law Review, UCLA Law Review, The Stanford Environmental Law Journal, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other periodicals and journals.