Heidi Li Feldman, J.D., Ph.D.
CAREER HISTORY
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center 2001-Present
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University 2004-Present
Scholarly specialties: torts, legal theory, contracts, the law of obligations political philosophy, ethics, bioethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind.
Courses taught: Torts; Advanced Torts: Theory and Practice; Contracts, Selected Topics in Tort Law (seminars, e.g. Federalism and Tort Law, Promises andLegal Obligations; Tort Sagas), Legal Ethics Seminar: Can Good Lawyers Be Good Ethical Deliberators?; Seminar: Reason, Rationality, and the Reasonable Person (co-taught with Dan Sperber)
Visiting Professor, University of Heidelberg April-May 2006
Visiting Professor, University of Fribourg November-December 2003
Associate Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center 1999-2001
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center 1997-1999
Visiting Professor of Law, Tokyo University May 1993
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School 1991-1997
CURRENT MAJOR PROJECTS
Book proposal and articles related to the topic “Fiduciary Rationalization: The Failures of Disclosure and the Antidote of Loyalty”; adviser to Georgetown Law Center’s initative to develop a master’s degree in legal studies; member, faculty consultative group to Georgtown University President Jack DeGioia’s initiative for a Center on Public Scholarship; Professional activity: pro bono consultant to ALI regarding Restatement of the Law of Torts – Economic Loss; pro bono legal consultant to Hilary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. (philosophy) 1993, University of Michigan
Dissertation committee co-chairs: Dr. Allan Gibbard and Dr. Peter Railton
Rackham Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship (declined)
Department nominee: Mary Malcomson Raphael Fellows (university-sponsored grant for doctoral students writing dissertations)
J.D. 1990, University of Michigan Law School
Henry M. Bates Award (highest honor awarded to graduating law student)
Order of the Coif
Articles Editor, Michigan Law Review, 1988-89
Scribes Legal Writing Society Award for Outstanding Law Review Note
A.B. 1986, Brown University
Magna cum laude (Brown’s highest honor)
Honors in Ethics and Political Philosophy; Undergraduate Thesis Adviser: Dr. Dan Brock; Thesis: Living Together The Rationality of Social Cooperation:
Preliminaries to Part II of the Philosophy Tripos 1984-85, Cambridge University (Jesus College); Director of Studies: Dr. Jeremy Butterfield
Languages: Spanish (reading); German (reading); French (limited reading); Italian (limited reading)
PUBLICATIONS
Prudence, Benevolence, and Judgments of Negligence: Virtue Ethics and Tort Law, in Virtue Jurisprudence, eds. Colin Farrelly and Lawrence Solum, (Palgrave MacMillan, 2008 (piece invited by the editors).
Loss, 35 New Mexico Law Review 375 (2005) in symposium issue entitled "Civil Numbers: Examining the Spectrum of Noneconomic Harm"
Pushing Drugs: Genomics, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Law of Negligence in Ahrens Tort Law Symposium, 42 Washburn L.J. 575 (2003) [sections reprinted in Aspen casebook on Bioethics and Healthcare Law, 2005]
Commissioned Book Review, Outgunned: Up Against the NRA by Peter Harry Brown and Daniel G. Abel, commissioned by Trial: Journal of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America 81 (July 2003)
Commissioned Book Review, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews at http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=1092 (review of Gerald Postema, Philosophy and the Law of Torts) (September 2002)
Prudence, Benevolence, and Judgments of Negligence: Virtue Ethics and Tort Law, in Symposium: Law, Psychology, and the Emotions, 74 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1431 (2000)
Foreword to Symposium: Law, Psychology, and the Emotions, 74 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1423 (2000)
Beyond the Model Rules: The Place of Examples in Legal Ethics, Foreword to Symposium, 12 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 409 (1999) (commissioned by the Journal)
Apparently Substantial, Oddly Hollow: The Enigmatic Practice of Justice (book review of William Simon, The Practice of Justice), 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1472 (1999) (commissioned by the Law Review)
Rawls’ Political Constructivism as a Judicial Heuristic: A Response to Professor Allen, 51 Florida L. Rev. 67 (1999); (invited commentary on Anita Allen’s Dunwoody Distinguished Lecture in Law)
Science, Reason, and Tort Law: Looking for the Reasonable Person, in Law and Science (Oxford University Press, 1998), 35. (Written in conjunction with an invited presentation at The Law and Science Conference, held at University College, London, June 1997.)
Blending Fields: Tort Law, Philosophy, and Legal Theory (book review of Philosophical foundations of Tort Law, ed. David G. Owen), 49 S. Carolina L. Rev. 167 (1997) (commissioned by the Law Review)
Harm and Money: Against the Insurance Theory of Tort Compensation, 75 Tex. L. Rev. 1567 (1997). (Written in conjunction with The 1997 W. Page Keeton Symposium on Tort Law, held at University of Texas Law School)
Enriching the Legal Ethics Curriculum: From Requirement to Desire, 58 L. and Contemp. Prob. 51 (Summer/Autumn 1995)
Libertarianism With a Twist (book review of Richard Epstein, Simple Rules), 94 Mich. L. Rev. 1883 (1996) (commissioned by the Law Review)
Codes and Virtues: Can Good Lawyers Be Good Ethical Deliberators?, 69 S. Cal. L. Rev. 885 (1996)
Science and Uncertainty in Mass Exposure Litigation, 74 Tex. L. Rev. 1 (1995)
Objectivity in Legal Judgment, 92 Mich. L. Rev. 1187 (1994)
Divided We Fall: Associational Standing and Collective Interest, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 733 (1988)
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL HONORS, AFFILIATIONS, AND ACTIVITIES
Elected Member, American Law Institute 2001 - present
Member following Consultative Groups;
Rest. Third, Torts: Liability for Physical & Emotional Harm
Rest. Third, Economic Torts and Related Wrongs
Rest. Third, Restitution and Unjust Enrichment
Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation
Peer reviewer: University of Chicago Press; Aspen Publishers – A Wolter Kluwer Company; U.S.; Department of Energy, Human Genome Project, Ethical, Legal and Social Implications; Duke University Press; NIH Law and Society Grants Program; International Journal of Law and Society; Cambridge University Press, Law Division; Oxford University Press
Georgetown Faculty Workhshop Presentation, “On Certain Social Practices: Lies, Deception, and Disclosure”, Georgetown University Law Center, October 16, 2007
Rapporteur, 2007 Sandra Day O’Connor Project Conference "State Courts: the Debate over Judicial Elections and Judicial Selection", sponsored byThe Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary, October 17, 2007
Invited Participant, 21st Century Medicine: Personalized and Evidence-Based, Hosted by: Personalized Medicine Coalition, Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies , September 18-19, 2007
Invited commentator, Cato Institute, Program on Bioethics, Book Forum to discuss David Shore, The Trust Crisis in Healthcare: Causes, Consequences, and Cures?; April 20, 2007
Co-organizer and moderator, Conference on Ancillary-Care Obligations for Medical Researchers Working in Developing Countries, Georgetown University, October 2006
Co-recipient, Reflective Engagement Grant from Georgetown University, to organize a major conference on ancillary care (care-taker obligations researcher-physicians and pharmaceutical companies may owe participants in clinical trials); grant received December 2005; conference held October 2006
Invited presenter, Openness versus Privacy; Access versus Security: Ethical Issues in Digital Data Collection and Sharing, sponsored by IQPC Conference on Data Privacy and Security: Enterprise Rights Management Practices to Protect Your Data and Ensure Compliance, June 20-21, 2006
Invited referee for annual Interdisciplinary Law & Humanities Junior Scholars Conference, sponsored by UCLA School of Law, Columbia Law School, University of Southern California Center for Law, History & Culture, and Georgetown University Law Center, 2002-2006
Invited moderator, Conference on International Markets and Corporate Governance, Georgetown Sloan Project/Anton Philips Fund, October 28-29, 2005
Invited symposiast, Clifford Symposium in Civil Justice, Chicago-Kent School of Law, April 2005
Invited symposiast, Conference on Noneconomic Harm, University of New Mexico School of Law, February 2005
Conference planner and faculty member, Bilateral Conference on Appellate Judging, October 2003 (co-sponsored by the American Bar Association Judicial Education Council and the National Judges’ Institute of Canada)
Section officer, Torts Section, Association of American Law Schools, 1999-2003
Faculty Member, Joint Conference on Appellate Judging, co-sponsored by the American Bar Association and the National Judicial Council of Canada, October 2003; planner and instructor for session on Reproductive Technologies and the Law
Moderator/Panelist, International Approaches to Public and Private Sector Data Privacy at Conference on Security, Technology, and Privacy: Shaping a 21st Century Public Information Policy, April 2003
Member, Steering Committee, Security, Technology, and Privacy: Shaping a 21st Century Public Information Policy (conference co-chairs: John Podesta, Georgetown University Law Center, Peter Shane, Carnegie Mellon University, Richard C. Leone, The Century Foundation; held at Georgetown University Law Center, April 24 and 25, 2003
Organizer, New Negligence Symposium at Georgetown University Law Center, Fall 2002 (some proceedings published as written symposium in Georgetown University Law Journal, Spring 2003)
Invited participant, legal theory symposium sponsored by Bar-Elan University and the University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany, December 2002
Invited Presenter, “Medical Malpractice Law, The Physician’s Best Friend: A Case-Based Examination,” Special Grand Rounds for Clinical Fellows, National Institutes for Health, August 2001
Invited presentation, “Beyond Reasonableness: Negligence, Prudence, and Care,” Randall-Park Colloquium Series, University of Kentucky College of Law, February 2001
Faculty Member, The Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont Tri-State Judicial Education Conference on Genetics and the Courts, October 2000
Conference Planner and Faculty Member, Bilateral Canadian-U.S. Judicial Conference on Genetics, Patents, and Ethics, Kananaskis, Canada, June 2000
Invited presenter, Conference on the Third Restatement of Torts (Negligence), “History, Psychology, and the Rise and Persistence of the Reasonable Person Standard,” , Vanderbilt University, September 2000
Invited presenter, Symposium on Multidisciplinary Practice, “Multidisciplinary Practice: A Comparison Between Medical Centers and Multidisciplinary Providers of Legal and Financial Services,” University of Minnesota Law School, Spring 2000
Invited presenter, ”Prudence, Benevolence, Negligence: Tort Law and Virtue Ethics,” University of Louisville, Department of Philosophy, March 2000
Invited presenter, “Tort Law and Virtue Ethics,” Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Section on Scholarship, January 2000
Invited Guest Editor, Chicago-Kent Law Review Symposium: Law, Psychology, and the Emotions, 1999-2000:
∆ Invited participating authors: Anne Dailey (University of Connecticut Law School - Storrs), Justin D’Arms (Ohio State University, Department of Philosophy), Donald Langevoort (Georgetown University Law Center), Jeffrey Rachlinski (Cornell University Law School), Elizabeth Rapaport (University of New Mexico Law School and Duke University Law School)
∆ Provided editorial advice and comments to authors
∆ Author of Foreword to the issue
∆ Author of lead article
Invited panelist, “Partners in Tort: Liability Insurers and the Reasonable Person,” AALS Joint Session of Sections on Insurance and Tort Law, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, January 1999
Invited presentation, “Curriculum Reform in the First Year: Georgetown Law Center’s Alternative Curriculum,” Osgoode Hall Law School, Faculty Workshop, November 1999
Speaker, “An Evolutionary Analysis of the Reasonable Person in American Tort Law,” Annual Law and Society Meetings, June 1999
Speaker, “The Epistemology of the Reasonable Person Standard in American Tort Law,” Georgetown University, Department of Psychology, Presentation at Faculty Colloquia, April 1999
Speaker, “The Epistemology of the Reasonable Person Standard in American Tort Law,” Georgetown University, Department of Philosophy, Presentation at Faculty Colloquia, April 1999
Invited participant, Joint Civilian Orientation Conference, 1998 (Sponsored by the Secretary of the Department of Defense, JCOC is the largest and most selective civilian introduction to the U.S. Armed Forces)
Invited participant, “An Evolutionary Analysis of the Reasonable Person in American Tort Law,” Chicago-Kent College of Law Faculty Workshop, April 1998
Invited presentation, “Looking for the Reasonable Person,” University of Virginia Law School Faculty Workshop, Fall 1998
Invited presentation, “Science, Reason, and Tort Law,” Law and Science Seminar; sponsored by Oxford University Press and University College, London, June 1997
Keynote Address, “Legal Ethics and Virtue Ethics,” American Bar Association Conference on Professional Responsibility, May 1997
Invited presentation, “Objectivity and Reasonableness in Tort and Criminal Law,” Conference on Tort Law and Criminal Law, University of Western Ontario, Department of Philosophy, March 1997
Invited presentation, “Harm and Money: Against the Insurance Theory of Tort Compensation,” The 1997 W. Page Keeton Symposium on Tort Law, held at University of Texas Law School, 1997
Invited presentation, “Science and Uncertainty,” Tort Law and the Science of the 21st Century: Implications for Social Policy, Theory, and Practice, Second Annual Clifford Seminar on Tort Law and Social Policy, DePaul University College of Law, May 1996
Invited participant, “Codes, Virtues, and the Regulation of Lawyers,” Conference on Legal Professionalism: In Whose Interest? Public, Client or Lawyer?, sponsored by the Westminster Institute for Ethics and Human Values, June 1995
Invited speaker, “Codes, Virtues, and the Regulation of Lawyers,” Session on Legal Professionalism, Law and Society Annual Meeting, June 1995
Invited presentation, ”Science and Uncertainty in Mass Exposure Litigation,” University of Pennsylvania Law School, Legal Theory Workshop, November 1995
Invited commentator, American Society for Aesthetics (Eastern Division) Meetings, May 1995
Invited Presentation, “Rules and Virtues: Can Good Lawyers be Good Ethical Deliberators?, “ Boalt Hall/Program in Jurisprudence and Social Philosophy, Law and Society Workshop, February 1995
INSTITUTIONAL PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE
Georgetown University Law Center
General
Serve as “mock justice” for Supreme Court Institute moot of (then) upcoming live oral argument before United States Supreme Court
Participant, Faculty Colloquium on International Law, Spring 2000; co-led session on Robin West’s paper, “Ethical Cosmopolitanism”
Regular participant, Faculty Scholarship Workshop, Fall 1996 - present
Administrative Responsibilities
Member, Committee on Law Students Becoming Academic Faculty
Member, Faculty Workshop Committee, 2004-05
Member, Library Committee, 2003-2004.
Member, Joint Degree Programs (Philosophy Advisor), 2000-to present
Member, Journals Committee, 2000-2001
Member, Teaching Committee, 1999-2001
Member, Faculty Workshop Committee, 1999-2000
Member, Task Force on Orientation, 1999-2000
Member, Committee on Joint Degrees, 1999-2000
Informal faculty adviser to Dean Judith Areen on proposal for Center on Law and the Information Economy, late 1999-2000
Service to students, alumni, student organizations, extra teaching service
“Emcee” for benefit basketball game played between Georgetown Law faculty and Members of Congress; organized by “Home Court”, Georgetown law student organization, 2007
Independent study adviser to J.D. students (1-3 per year), Spring 1998 to present, topics ranging from tort liability for managed care organizations to comparative study of legal craft.
Ongoing adviser to alumni seeking positions in academia (2-4 per year)
Auctioneer, Equal Justice Foundation, Fall 2003.
Auctioneer and contributor, Equal Justice Foundation, Fall 2002.
Faculty panel participant, First Year Orientation, evening program for entire entering class, Fall 2000
Faculty presenter, small group discussion on Make No Law, First Year Orientation, Fall 2000
Keynote speaker, National Lawyers’ Guild “Disorientation,” Fall 1999
Auctioneer and contributor, Equal Justice Foundation annual auction, Fall 1999
Contributor, Equal Justice Foundation annual auction, Fall 1998
Participant, Home Court, 1998, 1999
University of Michigan Law School
Administrative Responsibilities
Member, Dean Search Advisory Committee, 1993-94
Member, Personnel Appointments Committee, 1993-94
Chair, Academic Standards Committee, 1992-93
Member, Academic Standards Committee, 1991-92.
Service to students and student organizations, extra teaching service
Minority Affairs Program, section adviser, 1996-97
Minority Affairs Program, orientation faculty, 1991-96
Legal Writing Program, faculty adviser, 1991-96
Designed and ran (with David Luban) a week-long program in legal ethics
Faculty adviser to S.J.D. students and J.D. students conducting independent study in areas including biotechnology and the law, legal theory, and torts
University of Michigan
Invited Participant, Provost’s Seminar on Teaching; University of Michigan, 1994-1997
Member, Senior Scholarships Selection Committee University of Michigan candidates for Rhodes and Marshal Scholarships, 1996-97
NONACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Founder and managing member two small real estate development LLCs
Consultant to major Washington D.C. business developer on design and marketing of new condominium development
Occasional legal consultant to various U.S. law firms on range of matters related to civil justice system or lawyer/law firm fiduciary duties
Popular press publication: "You're in the Army Now; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love. the Military." Mother Jones 23, no. 6 (1998): 77-9, available at http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/1998/11/feldman.html
Interviewed by major press outlets, including National Public Radio and Nightline on matters related to the tort system and the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund
Various other popular press items and interviews
Summer associate: Wachtell, Lipton; Paul, Weiss (New York city offices)