Before joining the faculty of the School of Law in 1979, Professor Dickinson practiced in a small law firm in Michigan and served as Assistant General Counsel and Secretary to the Renegotiation Board. The Renegotiation Board was a small federal agency charged by Congress with eliminating excessive profits on nation defense and space contracts and no longer exists. “We weren’t very popular,” he says, “especially with defense contractors.”
Professor Dickinson was attracted to the School of Law, which was then only five years old, by its people, faculty, staff and students. He saw an opportunity to have significant impact on the formative years of the institution. He also liked that it was at a major Catholic university, with a beautiful campus in a vibrant and active city. Referring to the old law school building, Professor Dickinson says, “Albert Emanuel Hall looked like a law school to me.”
Originally teaching business courses, he served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs from 1980 to 1983, from 1987 to 1992, and again from 2001 to 2005. In this role, Professor Dickinson had a hand in many of the major developments at the school, including the creation of the Legal Profession Program in the 1980s, and space and budget for Keller Hall in the 1990s. “I like seeing people and things work the way they ought to,” he says. “Our primary goal is to educate our students, and what I do furthers that goal.”
Professor Dickinson received the Francis J. Conte Special Service Award in May 2006 from the School of Law.
Teaches
LAW 6110 Contracts I
Useful Web Links
UDSL Academics
Homepage and Information for Contracts Students
Publications
- Divorce and Life Insurance: Post Mortem Remedies for Breach of a Duty to Maintain a Policy for a Designated Beneficiary, 61 Missouri Law Review 533-92 (1996)
Reprinted in National Insurance Law Review 719 (1997)
- Mistaken Improver’s of Real Estate, 64 North Carolina Law Review 37-75 (1985)
- Partners in a Corporate Cloak: The Emergence and Legitimacy of the Incorporated Partnership, 33 American University Law Review 559-600 (1984)