Faculty Profile: Barbara Kritchevsky

Barbara Kritchevsky graduated from Middlebury College summa cum laude in 1977 with high honors in   Political Science.  She received her J.D. degree, cum laude, 1980 from Harvard Law School in 1980.  She was a litigator with the Philadelphia law firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath for three years and then moved into teaching.  She has been teaching at the University of Memphis School of Law since 1983 and is a Cecil C. Humphreys Professor of Law.  Her main teaching interests are civil rights litigation and appellate advocacy; she has also taught constitutional law, criminal law, federal courts, and torts.  Kritchevsky served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for eight years and is now Director of Advocacy.  She has published numerous articles in the area of civil rights litigation and has recently published two major articles dealing with the federalism implications of the tort doctrine of negligence per se. 

Kritchevsky’s passion, aside from teaching, is coaching moot court.  Her teams have won the Wagner Labor & Employment Law Moot Court Competition three times and have reached the national finals of the country’s two largest moot court competitions:  the New York Bar Association’s National Moot Court Competition and the American Bar Association’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition.  Members of her teams have won the National Best Advocate Award at the ABA competition, best advocate in the final round of the National Moot Court Competition, and best advocate at Wagner.  Teams have also won regional best brief in the National Moot Court competition and brief awards in the ABA Competition and Wagner.