Areas of Expertise
Civil Procedure, Complex Litigation, Business Associations
Courses
Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Complex Litigation
Biography
Richard D. Freer is dean and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law.
Freer is a noted scholar of civil procedure, federal jurisdiction, and complex litigation. He has authored or co-authored 17 books and dozens of journal articles and essays. His work has been cited by state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He is an elected life member of the American Law Institute and serves as an academic fellow of the National Civil Justice Institute. He is the only person to serve as contributing author to both standard multivolume treatises on federal jurisdiction and practice: Moore’s Federal Practice and Wright & Miller’s Federal Practice and Procedure.
Eleven Emory Law graduating classes have named Freer Most Outstanding Professor. He is a recipient of Emory University’s highest teaching recognition, the Emory Williams University Teaching Award, and of Emory University’s Scholar/Teacher Award. He delivered the 2024 John F. Morgan Sr. Distinguished Faculty Lecture. As a bar review lecturer for more than 30 years, he has lectured to more than 500,000 bar exam candidates nationwide.
Through his 41 years on the faculty, in various leadership roles—including the university associate vice provost for academic affairs, Emory Law associate dean of faculty, chair of the university’s Tenure and Promotion Advisory Committee and chair of more than a dozen law school committees—Freer has championed a collaborative approach to decision-making. His priorities flow from the core law school mission of preparing principled, sophisticated lawyers who can thrive and lead in any milieu. He sees the two pillars of that mission as academic eminence and student flourishing – an integrated and innovative network of support allowing students to define and pursue their unique path to professional excellence.
Following graduation from UCLA School of Law, Freer clerked for two federal judges and litigated with the Los Angeles firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. He has served as a visiting professor at George Washington University, Central European University in Budapest, Moscow State University in Russia, the University of Warsaw in Poland, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. He served on the UC San Diego Athletics Advisory Board.
Education: JD, UCLA, 1978; BA, UC San Diego, 1975