Professor Michael J. Higdon

Michael J. Higdon has been a member of the University of Tennessee College of Law faculty since August 2009.  He teaches and writes in the areas of Constitutional Law; Sexuality, Gender and the Law; Wills & Trusts; and Family Law. His scholarship in these areas has been published in several journals, including the Duke Law Journal, the George Washington Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the Alabama Law Review, the Indiana Law Journal, and the Fordham Law Review.

Higdon received the J.D. in 2001 from the University of Nevada, graduating first in his class and receiving the James E. Rogers Award for outstanding academic achievement. While in law school, he served as editor-in-chief of the Nevada Law Journal. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Procter Hug, Jr. of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Higdon has received the law school’s Harold C. Warner Outstanding Teacher Award, the Carden Award for Outstanding Service to the Institution, the W. Allen Separk Faculty Scholarship Award, the Marilyn V. Yarbrough Faculty Award for Writing Excellence, and the Carden Award for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship.

He currently serves as the Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Prior to that, he served as the Associate Dean for Faculty Development for four years.  He has also served as Faculty Fellow in the Provost’s Office of Faculty Affairs, and he currently represents the University of Tennessee as one of its delegates in the SEC Academic Development Leadership Program.