Rate My Professor Neil Williams

Neil G. Williams is the Nathaniel R. Jones Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a position he has held as part of his over 35-year tenure with the institution since joining the full-time faculty in 1989. He earned his B.A. summa cum laude from Duke University in 1978, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1982. After law school, Williams served as a law clerk to the Honorable George N. Leighton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He subsequently joined the Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin, handling general corporate finance and securities law matters. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised in Atlanta during the civil rights era, Williams experienced the lingering effects of segregation despite Brown v. Board of Education. He became the first African American valedictorian of his integrated high school and received a partial scholarship to Duke.

Williams' contributions include receiving the Norman C. Amaker Award of Excellence from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 2002 and being reelected President of the Midwestern People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference in 2006. His key publications are 'Brown v. Board of Education Fifty Years Later: What Makes for Greatness in a Legal Opinion?', 36 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 177 (2004); 'What To Do When There's No "I Do": A Model Awarding Damages Under Promissory Estoppel', 70 Washington Law Review 1019 (1995); and 'Offer, Acceptance, and Improper Considerations: A Common Law Model for the Prohibition of Racial Discrimination in the Contracting Process', 62 George Washington Law Review 183 (1994). As faculty advisor to the Black Law Students Association for more than 30 years, he has emphasized mentoring and giving back to students, emulating those who supported him. Williams has also served on university committees, including as Chair of the Faculty Appeals Committee.