William Franklin Fratcher Missouri Endowed Professor of Law

School of Law

Edward L. Jenkins Professor of Law

About David English

Professor English joined the MU law faculty in 1999, following a career as an estate planning partner with the Chicago law firm of D’Ancona & Pflaum and teaching at the Universities of South Dakota and Santa Clara.

Professor English is best known for his work with the Uniform Law Commission, for which he was the Reporter for the Uniform Trust Code, the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act, and the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act, and was the Chair of the drafting committee on the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship and Other Protective Arrangements Act. He has also been active in the American Bar Association and Missouri Bar. For the 2018-2019 Bar Year, he serves as Chair of the ABA Section of Real Property Trust and Estate Law,  and he is a former Chair of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging, a former member of the ABA House of Delegates, and a former Chair of the Probate and Trust Committee of the Missouri Bar.

Professor English is co-author of the three-volume treatise, Tax, Estate and Financial Planning for the Elderly, successor author of volumes 4A, 4B, and volumes 5 through 5D of Missouri Practice, and co-author of the books Wills, Trusts and Estates, Principles of Wills, Trusts and Estate, and the Fiduciary Accounting and Trust Administration Guide. He teaches Estates and Trusts, Estate Planning, Elder Law, and Fiduciary Administration.

Areas of Expertise

• Elder Law
• Estate Planning
• Guardianship Law
• Probate
• Trust Law
• Uniform Acts

Educational Background

BA, Duke University, '74
JD, Northwestern University, '79