Directory
Adam Todd
Professor of Lawyering Skills; Coordinator of Human Rights
Full-Time Faculty
School of Law
Profile
Professor Adam Todd’s love of teaching, his devotion to his family and his affection for his small farmhouse in Central Ohio led him to the University of Dayton. Not long after graduating from law school, he started his law teaching at Hamline University School of Law and University of Minnesota Law School. He then moved to Springfield, Ohio, when his wife joined the faculty in the English Department at Wittenberg University.
Professor Todd then commuted from Springfield to Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law, where he taught Legal Writing, Legal Drafting, Comparative Law, Conflicts of Law and Public Interest Law. He also served as the director of academic support at Chase College of Law. In 2006, he joined the faculty at University of Baltimore School of Law, where he taught Torts, Contracts, Appellate Advocacy and Legal Skills and directed the moot court programs.
Prior to coming to University of Dayton, Professor Todd served as a visiting associate professor of Law at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, where he taught Torts and an Advanced Contracts seminar.
He served as a Visiting Fulbright Professor at Palacky University in the Czech Republic, where he taught courses on the American legal system and comparative legal discourse. He is also a former legal services attorney and continues to have an interest and dedication to public interest law.
He currently serves as the Coordinator of the University of Dayton Human Rights Center – Law School Collaborative and previously served as Coordinator of the Legal Profession Program.
He has published articles in the areas of postmodern legal theory, legal writing and rhetoric, housing law, tort law and academic support. His most recent research examines how neuroscience supports legal realist views of rhetoric in the law.
Courses Taught
LAW 6103 Torts II
LAW 6105 Legal Profession I
LAW 6106 Legal Profession II
Degrees
J.D., Rutgers Law School, 1990
B.A., Brown University, 1983
Selected Publications
An Exaggerated Demise: The Endurance of Formalism in Legal Rhetoric in the Face of Neuroscience, 23 Journal of Legal Writing 84 (Spring 2019)(peer reviewed).
Lizbeth M. Chavez, Tammy V. Chavez, Adam G. Todd, Eleanor Brown, Camilo & Pérez-Bustillo, The Need to Open Doors and Hearts: The Detention of Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in the United States and Mexico, 42 U. Dayton L. Rev. 359 (2017).
Writing Lessons from Abroad: A Comparative Perspective on the Teaching of Legal Writing, 53 Washburn Law Journal 295 (Spring 2014).
Teaching Scholarly Writing in the First-Year LWR Class: Bridging the Divide between Scholarly and Practical Writing, 22 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 36 (Fall 2013).
“An Enduring Oddity: The Collateral Source Rule in the Face of Tort Reform, the Affordable Care Act and Increased Subrogation,” McGeorge Law Review (forthcoming 2012).
“Painting a Moving Train: Adding ‘Postmodern’ to the Taxonomy of the Law," 40 University of Toledo Law Review 105 (Fall 2008).
“Neither Dead Nor Dangerous: Postmodernism and the Teaching of Legal Writing,” 58 Baylor Law Review 893 (2006).
“Fractured Freedoms: The United States’ Postmodern Approach to Protecting Privacy,” Proceedings of the Polish Association of American Studies 2004 Conference, Warsaw, Poland.
“Exam Writing as Legal Writing: Including the Art and Science of Exam Writing in the Legal Writing Curriculum,” 76 Temple Law Review 69 (2003).
“Academic Support Programs: Effective Assistance Through a Systemic Approach,” 38 Gonzaga Law Review 187 (2002/2003). The issue is a special edition dedicated to the Institute for Law School Teaching.