Charles M. Silver is Recipient of 2009 Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award

CHICAGO, July 8, 2009 — The American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section is honoring Charles M. Silver of Austin, Texas, with the Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award.  The award will be presented to Silver during the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago at the section’s Leadership and Awards Dinner, which will take place on Sunday, Aug. 2 at the John G. Shedd Aquarium at the Museum Campus from 6:30–10 p.m.

Established in 1988, the award was created by the section to honor law professors who have shown commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort and insurance law.

“Charles richly deserves this honor for his dedication to justice and scholarship in the legal profession, displayed not only by his unwavering service in higher education, but also by his valuable involvement with the TIPS Task Force on the Contingent Fee,” said Section Chair Tim Bouch of Charleston, South Carolina.

Prof. Silver holds the Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald Endowed Chair at the University of Texas School of Law, where he writes and teaches about civil procedure, professional responsibility and health care law and policy. He is a guest columnist for TortDeform.com, an associate reporter on the American Law Institute’s project on aggregate litigation and is also a member of the ABA/TIPS Task Force on the Contingent Fee.

Silver served as a professional responsibility advisor for the plaintiffs’ team in State of Texas v. The American Tobacco Co., a lawsuit brought to recover Medicaid costs and other expenses that ultimately resulted in a settlement for $17.3 billion. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the Vanderbilt University Law School and was honored with the Faculty Research Grant at the University of Texas in 2005-06. Silver was elected a fellow for the Texas Bar Foundation in 1998 and received the Texas Excellence in Teaching Award in 1997.

Silver’s recent works include The Impact of the 2003 Texas Medical Malpractice Damages Cap on Physician Supply and Insurer Payouts: Separating Facts from Rhetoric, 44 The Advocate 25 (2008) (with David A. Hyman and Bernard Black); Estimating the Effect of Damage Caps in Medical Malpractice Cases: Evidence from Texas, J. Legal Analysis (forthcoming 2008) with David A. Hyman, Bernard S. Black, and William M. Sage, inaugural issue, peer-reviewed); Defense Costs and Insurer Reserves in Medical Malpractice and Other Personal Injury Cases: Evidence from Texas, 1988-2004, 10 Amer. Law & Econ. Rev. 185 (2008) (with Bernard Black, David A. Hyman, and William M. Sage) (peer-reviewed); Incentivizing Institutional Investors to Serve as Lead Plaintiffs in Securities Fraud Class Actions, 57 DePaul Law Review 471 (2008) (with Sam Dinkin, invited symposium) and Malpractice Payouts and Malpractice Insurance: Evidence from Texas Closed Claims, 1990-2003, 33 Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance: Issues and Practice 177-192 (200) (with David A. Hyman, Bernard S. Black, William M. Sage and Kathryn Zeiler, peer-reviewed).

Silver earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Florida in 1979, his Master of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1981 and his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1987. He was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1988.

The ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section unites plaintiff, defense, insurance and corporate counsel to advance the civil justice system. TIPS is a national source of expertise in tort, trial and insurance practice and brings lawyers together to share information and speak out on issues of importance. The section, with over 32,000 members, has 34 general committees that focus on substantive and procedural matters in areas across the broad spectrum of civil law and practice. For more information about the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section visit the TIPS Web site, www.abanet.org/tips.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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Editors Note: Reporters are welcome to attend the award presentation and section dinner at the Annual Meeting. Media credentials can be obtained in the ABA Press Room at the Hyatt Regency Chicago or by contacting Debbie Weixl, ABA Division for Media Relations and Communication Services, at 312/988-6126 or e-mail weixld@staff.abanet.org. On site, call 847/902-9019.