Professor of Law; Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship;
Faculty Chair, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution.
Paul F. Kirgis began teaching at St. John's University
School of Law in 1998. His primary field of interest is
Dispute Resolution. He is Faculty Chair of the Hugh L. Carey
Center for Dispute Resolution, which he founded pursuant to a gift
from former New York Governor and St. John's Alumnus Hugh L. Carey.
Professor Kirgis teaches Negotiation, Alternative Dispute
Resolution, and Evidence. His scholarship focuses
on dispute resolution both within and outside of the traditional
civil litigation paradigm. He has written a number of
articles analyzing the role of juries as decisionmakers in the
civil justice system. In recent years, he has turned his
attention to the increasing use of arbitration and other
extrajudicial dispute reolution processes as alternatives to the
court system. His articles have appeared in the
Oregon Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, Ohio State Law
Review, Georgia Law Review, and the peer-reviewed International
Journal of Evidence & Proof, among others.
Professor Kirgis received his J.D., magna cum laude, from
Washington & Lee University School of Law, where he served as
Editor-in-Chief of the Washington & Lee Law Review and was
elected to the Order of the Coif. He received his B.A. from Colgate
University. Prior to coming to St. John's, Professor Kirgis
practiced with two major law firms in Washington, D.C., where he
had extensive litigation experience in areas including defamation,
insurance coverage, commercial disputes, antitrust, government
contracts, and tax.
Professor Kirgis was named the 2001-02 School of Law Professor
of the Year. He was a Visiting Professor at William &
Mary School of Law in the fall of 2004.