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faculty
Philip Cleary
Professor / Dean Emeritus
Law School / Faculty
Contact
508-985-1116
508-985-1115
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UMass School of Law 222
Education
| Southern New England School of Law | LLD, (Hon. c.) |
| Boston College Law School | JD |
| Harvard University | AM |
| Boston College | AB |
Teaching
- Torts, Advanced Torts, and Selected Issues in Massachusetts Tort Law
- Civil Procedure
- Commercial Law
- Payment Systems
- Sales
Teaching
Courses
The Academic Skills Lab is a non-credit bearing, weekly course for first year law students. Participation is mandatory during the fall semester when instruction focuses on a variety of fundamental legal skills such as law school study skills, case reading and briefing, legal analysis, and law school examination preparation. In the spring semester, the program's focus is remedial. First year students are referred to weekly workshop sessions designed to improve law school exam performance
The Academic Skills Lab is a non-credit bearing, weekly course for first year law students. Participation is mandatory during the fall semester when instruction focuses on a variety of fundamental legal skills such as law school study skills, case reading and briefing, legal analysis, and law school examination preparation. In the spring semester, the program's focus is remedial. First year students are referred to weekly workshop sessions designed to improve law school exam performance
A study of the law, policy, and theory of civil wrongs not arising from contract, including intentional assault, battery, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress, trespass, and conversion; negligence concepts, including duty, fault, causation, and injury; defenses, such as consent, assumption of risk, and comparative fault; strict and product liability; and other liability theories, such as nuisance, defamation, invasion of privacy, misrepresentation, and interference with economic relations.
Study of the various systems that regulate the payment of monetary obligations. The course will focus on negotiable instruments and bank deposits and collections under Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code and will also examine the law governing credit cards and electronic funds transfers. The course is primarily a statutory course and is taught by the problem method. Among the skills which the students should develop in this course are statutory interpretation, problem solving, and self-sufficiency. The course is primarily a statutory course and is taught by the problem method. Among the skills which the students should develop in this course are statutory interpretation, problem solving and self-sufficiency.
Professional background
Professor Cleary is an honors graduate of Boston College Law School, where he was Revisions Editor of the UCC Reporter-Digest. He served as a law clerk to the Massachusetts Trial Court. He practiced law in Boston, primarily in civil litigation, and tried the first case in the country involving private employee drug testing.
Professor Cleary is a member of the bars of Massachusetts, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the United States Tax Court. He has also served as an appellate attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Professor Cleary began teaching at the Southern New England School of Law as an adjunct professor in 1983 and was appointed to the full-time faculty in 1988. He was the first full-time dean of the law school and served in that position from 1988 to 1992.
During his tenure as dean, the school established the full-time day program and constructed its present facility.
Professor Cleary served as Associate Dean of UMass Law from 2011 to 2014.
Publications
Benevolent Maleficence: How a Well-Intentioned Legislature and a Deferential Court Combined to Stunt the Development of Massachusetts Product Liability Law, 8 U. Mass. L. Rev. 14 (2013)
Statutory Overkill: Why Section 3-420(a) of the Uniform Commercial Code May Not Really Mean What It Says about the Issuer’s Cause of Action for Conversion of a Negotiable Instrument, 39 U.C.C.L.J. 399 (2007)
The Crime of Shoplifting: Some Constitutional and Other Problems, 69 Mass. L. Rev. 20 (1984)
Private Employee Drug Testing: Some Common Law Theories of Recovery, a paper delivered at drug testing seminars sponsored by the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C., May 7, 1988