Ole Miss Law Welcomes New Faculty

Joining the school are Matthew Baker, Lee Harris and Rebecca Horwitz-Willis. 

Baker has been a visiting assistant professor at the law school for the past two years teaching secured transactions, corporate finance law and business associations. He now joins the school as a tenure track assistant professor.

Baker earned a juris doctor from the University of South Wales in Australia and holds a bachelor’s degree from Delta State University. Prior to teaching, he practiced at Minton Ellison in Sydney as part of the environment and planning team.   

Harris, previously served as the mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee, from 2018 to 2026 and faculty member at the University of Memphis School of Law, for 13 years. He held the school’s inaugural FedEx Professorship from 2012-2018.

Additionally, Harris brings private sector experience from when he practiced law with the firm of Baker, Donelson in Memphis. He has authored two textbooks about business law and taught at George Washington School of Law, Yale Law School and Grenoble Ecole de Management in France.

Harris holds a law degree from Yale Law School and an undergraduate degree from Moorehouse College where he majored in international studies and minored in economics.  He will teach contracts, mergers and acquisitions, as well as business associations. 

Horwitz-Willis comes to the law school from Boston College Law where she held the position of the Drinan Visiting Assistant Professor. Her research includes law and history of urban education in the United States.

Horwitz-Willis holds a juris doctor from the University of Texas School of Law, a master’s in education from Harvard University in Education Policy and a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University. She has previously worked as an educator and practiced law in Austin, Texas. She will join as a full tenure-track professor and teach Family Law, Constitutional Law and Education Law & Policy.