July 17, 2025

Professors Lietzan, Vacca, Conklin added to leadership team

University of Missouri School of Law Dean Paul Litton has announced three new appointments to his leadership team: Professor Erika Lietzan has been named Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development; Professor Ryan Vacca will serve as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; and Professor Carli Conklin will serve as Director of the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution. “I’m thrilled to add such accomplished scholars and teachers to our leadership team,” Dean Litton said. “Professor Lietzan brings an outstanding record of scholarship and mentoring to the position. She will support our first-rate scholars and foster a…

June 13, 2024

Dean Litton featured on Missouri Lawyers Media

Dean Paul Litton was featured on Missouri Lawyers Media in their Legal Limelight series. In the piece, Dean Litton answers a number of questions about his time at Mizzou Law and his plans as dean. To read the full piece, visit: https://molawyersmedia.com/2024/06/13/legal-limelight-paul-j-litton.

July 5, 2023

New state funding allows Mizzou Law to reopen Family Violence Clinic

Contact: Courtney Perrett, 573-882-6217, cperrett@missouri.edu   When it opened in the early ‘90s, the Family Violence Clinic at the University of Missouri School of Law was among the first of its kind: a safehaven for indigent victims of violence and a place for law students to gain the practical experience essential to a successful career as an attorney. Now, after  closing its doors in 2020, the legal clinic is poised for a comeback with support from new funding passed by the Missouri legislature. “I am so excited about this clinic,” said Paul Litton, dean of the MU School…

May 17, 2023

Paul Litton Named New Dean of the MU School of Law

University of Missouri Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Latha Ramchand announced today that Paul Litton has been named dean of the MU School of Law. Litton has served as interim dean of the school since July 2022, following the departure of Lyrissa Lidsky. He will assume his new duties on June 1, 2023. “In his 17 years at the university, Paul Litton has demonstrated an unwavering commitment not only to student success and legal scholarship of the highest caliber, but also to graduating and supplying the state of Missouri with the legal talent we need,” Ramchand said.

July 5, 2022

Paul Litton Takes Office as Interim Dean of Mizzou Law

Paul Litton today took office as interim dean of Mizzou Law following the leadership of Dean Lyrissa Lidsky, who stepped down on July 4. MU Provost Latha Ramchand announced in April that Litton had been named interim dean after Dean Lidsky finished her tenure. Litton, who is the R.B. Price Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, has been a member of the faculty at MU since 2006 and served as associate dean for research and faculty development for the last seven years. In addition, he has served as director of the office of academic integrity within the MU…

April 22, 2022

Paul Litton Named Interim Dean of Mizzou Law

University of Missouri Provost Latha Ramchand has announced that Paul Litton, associate dean for faculty research and R. B. Price Professor of Law will serve as interim dean of Mizzou Law. This appointment follows the announcement that Lyrissa Lidsky, dean and Judge C.A. Leedy Professor of Law at Mizzou Law will step down from the deanship on July 4. Dean Litton will assume the office on that day. “Over the last several weeks, we received input from a variety of constituents, including faculty, staff, and alumni, on the interim appointment,” said Provost Ramchand. “This collective input, along with Paul Litton’s…

Sep. 29, 2021

Paul Litton co-authors research study on how past suffering can result in future praise

A team of researchers at Mizzou, including Paul Litton, the associate dean for faculty research and R. B. Price Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, have discovered that people tend to give more praise to someone for their good deeds as an adult after discovering that person has also had to overcome adversity or suffering earlier in life, such as abuse and neglect as a child. Litton collaborated with Philip Robbins, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy in the MU College of Arts and Science. They say these findings can help to narrow a knowledge gap…

Aug. 26, 2021

Associate Dean Litton and Colleagues Publish Work on Moral Judgment

Associate Dean Litton and co-authors Philip Robbins and Fernando Alvear of Mizzou’s Philosophy Department have published their new set of studies on the relationship between perceptions of an agent’s life history and moral judgments of that agent’s conduct. In this article, Good Deeds and Hard Knocks: The Effect of Past Suffering on Praise for Moral Behavior, the authors focused on an under-theorized area of moral judgment, praise and reward, as most research on moral judgment has focused on blame and punishment. The researchers designed their studies to test conflicting predictions implied by different psychological theories of moral judgment. Contrary to…