Vincent R. Johnson

Professor of Law |Katherine A. Ryan Distinguished Chair for Global, Comparative, and International Law

Biography

Vincent R. Johnson teaches and writes in the areas of torts, professional responsibility, legal malpractice, government ethics, international law, and comparative law.

He was Interim Dean and Charles E. Cantú Distinguished Professor of Law in 2019-2020.

Johnson served as a Fulbright Scholar in Burma, China and Romania and as a law clerk for judges at the New York Court of Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago.

As a Supreme Court Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, he assisted Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist with his duties as head of the federal judiciary. Johnson received the Administration of Justice Award from the Supreme Court Fellows Alumni Association at a dinner attended by the current Chief Justice, John Roberts.

Johnson is a prolific scholar. His articles have been cited in more than 210 law reviews, 65 federal and state court decisions, and various treatises. Johnson’s books have been assigned as required reading at more than forty American law schools.

Professor Johnson is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, a national honor conferred by the Boy Scouts of America. He was made a member of the Order of Art and Culture by the City of Innsbruck, Austria.

Professor Johnson received his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame, an LL.M from Yale University, and an LL.M. from the London School of Economics. He has taught law and lectured in 12 countries.

For work on ethics reform, Professor Johnson received a Presidential Citation, “for truly outstanding service to the legal profession of Texas,” from the president of the State Bar of Texas, June 2021.

Organizations

  • Member, Committee on Disciplinary Rules and Referenda, 2017 to Present (Appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas)
  • Member, American Law Institute
  • Member, Executive Committee of the Professional Responsibility Section of the Association of American Law Schools, 2019 to 2022
  • Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Carolina Academic Press (1995-present)
  • Commissioner, Judicial Fellows Commission (1993-99)
  • 1997-1999, Chair, Mayor of San Antonio’s Taskforce on Ethics in Government (the work of which led to the adoption of a new ethics code governing the city’s 11,000 officials and employees)
  • 1989-2001, Director of the St. Mary’s University Institute on World Legal Problems, a summer program on international and comparative law conducted annually at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. Participants included five Justices of the United States Supreme Court, students from 90 American law schools and more than 40 visiting professors from Austria, China, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Russia and the United States.
  • San Antonio Bar Foundation
  • Texas Bar Foundation
  • American Bar Foundation
  • State Bar of Texas
  • San Antonio Bar Association
  • American Bar Association
  • Fulbright Association
  • Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers

Publications

Books

  • Legal Malpractice Law: Problems and Prevention (W. Acad. Publ’g ed., 3d ed. 2021) with Susan Saab Fortney.
  • Teacher’s Manual for Legal Malpractice Law: Problems and Prevention (W. Acad. Publ’g eds., 3d ed. 2021) with Susan Saab Fortney.
  • Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Legal Profession (West Academic Press 2018) (Hornbook Series, with Sisk et al.)
  • Advanced Tort Law:  A Problem Approach, 3d ed. (Carolina Academic Press 2020)
  • Studies in American Tort Law, 7th ed. (Carolina Academic Press, 2022), with Liu.
  • A Concise Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers (ALI 2007) co-edited with Fortney.
  • Mastering Torts, 7th ed. (Carolina Academic Press, 2022). The fifth edition was published in Chinese by China Renmin University Press in 2017.
  • Legal Malpractice Law in a Nutshell, 3d ed. (West Acad. Publ’g 2021).
  • Teaching Torts, 7th ed. (Carolina Academic Press, 2022), with Liu.

Articles in a Periodical

Book reviews

Vincent R. Johnson

Professor of Law |Katherine A. Ryan Distinguished Chair for Global, Comparative, and International Law

Contact Information

Education

  • LL.M, London School of Economics, 2016
  • LL.D., St. Vincent College, 1991
  • LL.M., Yale University, 1979
  • J.D., University of Notre Dame, 1978
  • B.A., St. Vincent College (Pa.), 1975

License to Practice

  • Texas (active status)
  • Pennsylvania (non resident, inactive status)

Specialties and Courses

  • Tort law
  • Legal ethics
  • Ethics in Government
  • Comparative Law
  • International Business Transactions
  • Legal malpractice
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