
Robert H. Jerry, II
Emeritus Dean, 2001-2014
About
Robert (“Bob”) Jerry is Dean-Emeritus and Levin, Mabie and Levin Professor-Emeritus at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. He is also the Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor-Emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Law. He served as dean of UF’s law school from 2003 to 2014. In 2015, he returned to the faculty at MU Law, where he taught until his retirement in 2019 (and where he was also a faculty member from 1998 to 2003). He was also the dean at the University of Kansas School of Law (1989-1994), where he taught for 13 years. His research and teaching specialty is insurance law, and he is the author of numerous books, book chapters, articles, and essays in this field, including the treatise Understanding Insurance Law (7th ed., 2025, with; co-author Doug Richmond). His book Advanced Introduction to Insurance Law (Elgar Press) was published in 2023. He has also written and presented in the fields of health care ethics, health care finance and access, alternative dispute resolution, and leadership studies. His book A Daily Reader for 1Ls: Becoming a Better Law Student and Lawyer in Four Minutes a Day was published by West in 2025. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a past chair of the Insurance Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He has also engaged in numerous service activities at every university where he has held an appointment, including chairing the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Protests, Public Spaces, Free Speech and the Press at the University of Missouri (2016-17). In 2020, he received the Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award, which is awarded annually by the American Bar Association’s Tort, Trial, and Insurance Practice Section to a law professor who has “shown commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship, and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort, trial practice, or insurance law.”
Education
J.D., University of Michigan (cum laude)
B.S., Indiana State University (magna cum laude)
Teaching and Scholarship
Insurance Law, Contracts, Health Insurance, Health Care Finance and Access
Publications
Books
- A Daily Reader for 1Ls: Becoming a Better Law Student and Lawyer in Four Minutes a Day (Minneapolis: West Academic Publishing, 2025, 527 pp.; audio version forthcoming).
- Understanding Insurance Law (with Douglas R. Richmond, co-author). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press (7th ed., 2025, 1165 pp.) [2018 (6th ed.), 1005 pp., with Richmond; 2012 (5th ed.), 1005 pp., with Richmond; 2008 (4th ed.), 1024 pp., with Richmond; 2002 (3rd ed.), 1171 pp.; 1996 (2nd ed.), 989 pp.; 1987 (1st ed.), 748 pp.]
- Advanced Introduction to Insurance Law, London: Edward Elgar Publishing (2023), 159 pp.
- Insurance Law and Practice: Cases, Materials, and Exercises (with Christopher C. French, co-author). St. Paul, MN: West Academic Publishing, 2018, 889 pp.
- Insurance Law: Cases and Materials (with Roger C. Henderson, co-author). New York: Lexis Publishing, Inc., 2001 (3d ed.), 1225 pp. [1996 (2nd ed.), 1136 pp., with Henderson]
Book Chapters and Related Contributions
- “Who is an Insured.” In Douglas R. Richmond, ed., Homeowners Insurance: Issues and Analysis. Chicago: ABA Publishing, forthcoming 2025.
- “Terminating the Duty to Defend.” In Douglas R. Richmond & Samuel J. Arena, Jr., coeds., The Insurers Duty to Defend: Issues and Analysis. Chicago: ABA Publishing, 2024, pp. 263-319).
- “Understanding Parametric Insurance: A Potential Tool to Help Manage Pandemic Risk.” In Maria Luisa Muñoz & Anna Tarasiuk, co-eds., Covid-19 and Insurance (AIDA Europe Research series on Insurance Law and Regulation), Zurich, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2023. (pp. 17-62).
- “Transparency in U.S. Insurance Regulation.” In Pierpaolo Marano & Kyriaki Noussia, eds., Transparency in Insurance Regulation and Supervisory Law: A Comparative Analysis (AIDA Europe Research Series on Insurance Law and Regulation, Vol. 4). Zurich, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2021. (pp. 547-593)
- “Reflections on COVID-19, insurance, business interruption, systemic risk, and the future.” In Abel B. Veiga Copo, Dimensiones Y Desafíos Del Seguro De Responsabilidad Civil. Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2021, ch. 16. (reprinted at 110 Icade: Revista de la Facultad de Derecho 1 (2020)).
- “Risk and Regulation in Private Insurance.” In I. Glenn Cohen, A. Hoffman, & W. Sage, eds., The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Health Law. London: Oxford University Press, 2017. (pp. 720-741)
- “Disruptive Forces at Our Doors: Challenges for the Legal Profession and Legal Education.” In Center for American Law Studies, University of Warsaw, Legal Education and Legal Profession in the Global World: Polish-American Perspectives, Studia Iuridica tom LXII, 2016 (pp. 121-40; remarks published at pp. 39-48)
- “Crop Insurance.” In J. Thomas, ed., New Appleman on Insurance Library Edition, Vol. 5, ch. 56. New York: Lexis Publishing Co., 2014, 2015
- “Understanding Crop Insurance,” In J. Thomas, ed., New Appleman on Insurance Critical Issues. New York: Lexis Publishing Co., Winter 2013 (p. 90 et seq.)
- “What is Insurance?,” In J. Thomas, ed., New Appleman on Insurance Library Edition, Vol. 1, ch. 1. New York: Lexis Publishing Co., 2009
- “Defining and Achieving Excellence.” In Law School Leadership Strategies. Aspatore Books, 2006 (pp. 147-160)
- “Life and Disability Insurance.” In Family Wealth Management, Grayson McCouch and William Turnier, eds. Minneapolis: West Publishing Co., 2005, Chap. 7 (pp. 480-564)
- “Antitrust Implications of Insurers’ Collaborative Standard Setting,” In Mark Rothstein, ed., Genetics and Life Insurance. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2004. Chap. 9 (pp. 195-216)
- “Insurance.” In The Oxford Companion to American Law, Kermit L. Hall et al., eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Encyclopedia entry (pp. 420-23)
- “Gender and Insurance.” In Women and Public Policy: A Revolution in Progress, Margaret Conway, ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1994. Chap. 6 (pp. 102-23)
- “Causation.” In Insuring Real Property, Stephen Cozen, ed. New York: Matthew Bender, Inc., 1990. Chap. 48 [97 pp.]
- “Introduction.” In Insurance Law Anthology, Vol. II., pp. ix-xv. Bethesda, Md.: International Library Law Book Publishers, 1989
- “Tort Recovery: Injury Thresholds.” In No-Fault and Uninsured Motorist Insurance. New York: Matthew Bender, Inc., 1988 (substantial revision of chapter originally written by H. Weitz)
Law Reviews and Journals
- Essay, “The Collapse of Champlain Towers South Was a Regulatory Failure,” The Regulatory Review, July 19, 2021, https://www.theregreview.org/2021/07/19/jerrycollapse-champlain-towers-south-regulatory-failure/ (on-line journal; University of Pennsylvania Law School)
- Article, “COVID-19: Responsibility and Accountability in a World of Rationing,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 7:1 (2020), 24 pp. https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsaa076
- Article, “Managing Natural Disaster Risk,” 6 Texas A&M Law Journal 391 (2019)
- Article, “Vade Mecum: Mediators and Disputes Involving Insurance,” 2019 Journal of Dispute Resolution 25
- Essay, “Framing Campus Free Expression Conflict through a Dispute Resolution Optic: Insights for Campus Leaders,” 2018 Journal of Dispute Resolution 57-70
- Article, “Dispute Resolution, Insurance, and Points of Convergence,” 2015 Journal of Dispute Resolution 255-281. Abridged version published as “The Active Intersection Where Dispute Resolution and Insurance Meet,” 35 Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation 99 (July-Aug. 2017), and “Explaining the Obvious: How Appraisals, Health Care, and More Implement ADR in the Insurance Field,” 35 Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation 115 (Sept. 2017)
- Article, “Public Forum 2.1: Public Higher Education Institutions and Social Media,” 14 Florida Coastal Law Review 55-98 (2013) (Lyrissa Lidsky, co-author)
- Essay, “Leadership and Followership,” 44 University of Toledo Law Review 345-54 (2013)
- Article, “Bad Faith at Middle Age: Comments on ‘The Principle Without a Name (Yet),’ Insurance Law, Contract Law, Specialness, Distinctiveness, and Difference,” 19 Connecticut Insurance Law Journal 13-28 (2012)
- Essay, “Reflections on Leadership,” 38 University of Toledo Law Review 539-546 (2007)
- Essay, “Life, Disability, and Health Insurance: Understanding the Relationships,” 35 Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 80-88 (2007)
- Article, “Regulating the Business of Insurance: Federalism in an Age of Difficult Risks,” 41 Wake Forest Law Review 835-878 (2006) (Steven E. Roberts, co-author)
- Essay, “A Brief Exploration of Space: Some Observations on Law School Architecture,” 36 University of Toledo Law Review 85-93 (2005)
- Article, “The Antitrust Implications of Collaborative Standard Setting by Insurers Regarding the Use of Genetic Information in Life Insurance Underwriting,” 9 Connecticut Insurance Law Journal 397 (2003)
- Article, “Insurance, Terrorism, and 9/11: Reflections on Three Threshold Questions,” 9 Connecticut Insurance Law Journal 95-120 (2002).
- Article, “May Harvey Rest in Peace: Lakin v. Postal Life & Casualty Insurance Company,” 2 Nevada Law Journal 292-311 (2002)
- Article, “Cybercoverage’ for Cyber-Risks: An Overview of Insurers’ Responses to the Perils of E-Commerce,” 8 Connecticut Insurance Law Journal 7-36 (2001) (Michele L. Mekel, co-author)
- Article, “Teaching Torts Without Insurance: A Second-Best Solution,” 45 St. Louis University Law Review 857-96 (2001) (David A. Fischer, co-author)
- Article, “The Insurer’s Right to Reimbursement of Defense Costs,” 42 Arizona Law Review 13-75 (2000) (reprinted at 50 Defense Law Journal 699-771 (2001))
- Article, “A Primer for the First-Time Law Dean Candidate,” 49 Journal of Legal Education 564-594 (1999)
- Article, “Health Insurers’ Use of Genetic Information: A Missouri Perspective,” 64 Missouri Law Review 759-788 (1999)
- Article, “Insurance, Contract, and the Doctrine of Reasonable Expectations,” 5 Connecticut Insurance Law Journal 21-57 (1998)
- Article, “Consent, Contract, and the Responsibilities of Insurance Defense Counsel,” 4 Connecticut Insurance Law Journal 153-203 (1997)
- Essay, “Health Insurance Coverage for High-Cost Health Care: Reflections on The Rainmaker,” 25 Memphis Law Review 1347-1376 (1996)
- Article, “The Wrong Side of the Mountain: The Unnatural History of Bad Faith,” 72 Texas Law Review 1317-1344 (1994)
- Essay, “Legal Education, The Legal Profession, and Change,” 41 Kansas Law Review 1-10 (1992)
- Article, “Statutory Prohibitions on the Negotiation of Insurance Agent Commissions: Substantive Due Process Review Under State Constitutions,” 51 Ohio State Law Journal 773-822 (1990) (Reginald L. Robinson, co-author)
- Article, “New Developments in Kansas Insurance Law,” 37 Kansas Law Review 841-906 (1989)
- Article, “Social Investing and the Lessons of South Africa Divestment: Rethinking the Limitations on Fiduciary Discretion,” 66 Oregon Law Review 685-751 (1987) (O. Maurice Joy, co-author)
- Article, “Remedying Insurers’ Bad Faith Contract Performance: A Reassessment,” 18 Connecticut Law Review 271-321 (1986); reprinted in Insurance Law Anthology, Vol. I, 1986 (Bethesda, Md.: International Library Law Book Publishers, 1987)
- Essay, “Introduction to Wolf Creek Symposium,” 33 Kansas Law Review 419-28, vi (1985)
- Article, “Justifying Unisex Insurance: Another Perspective,” 34 American University Law Review 329-67 (1985) (Kyle Mansfield, co-author)
- Essay, “Arthur L. Corbin: His Kansas Connection,” 32 Kansas Law Review 754-761 (1984)
- Article, “Recent Developments in Kansas Insurance Law: A Survey, Some Analysis, and Some Suggestions,” 32 Kansas Law Review 287-349 (1984)
- Article, “Antitrust and Employer Restraints in Labor Markets,” 6 Industrial Relations Law Journal 173-254 (1984) (Donald Knebel, co-author)
- Comment, “Impressions of a Not-So-Average Juror,” 7 American Journal of Trial Advocacy 141-154 (1983) (published anonymously)
- Article, “Recovery in Tort for Educational Malpractice: Problems of Theory and Policy,” 29 Kansas Law Review 195-212 (1981)
- Note, “A Reconsideration of the Stock Market Exception to the Dissenting Shareholder’s Right of Appraisal,” 74 Michigan Law Review 1023-66 (1976)