Professor Bill Corbett (second from left) at the 2024 University Faculty Awards Ceremony on April 23, with LSU Foundation President and CEO Rob Stuart (left to right), School of Information Studies Professor Edward Benoit III, Professor of Mathematics Stephen Shipman, Professor of Mathematics Thanos Gentimis, School of Music Professor Ana Maria Otamendi, and LSU Executive Vice President and Provost Roy Haggerty.
In recognition of his 33 years of teaching and mentoring students at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU selected Professor Bill Corbett as one of just 36 faculty members to receive a 2024 University Faculty Award.
Corbett was on hand to receive the award at the annual University Faculty Awards Ceremony, which was held on April 23 at the Manship Gallery in downtown Baton Rouge. Presented by the LSU Office of Academic Affairs, the awards program celebrates faculty excellence in research, teaching and service. The honorees are nominated and selected through a highly competitive process by their peers.
“Receiving this award means a great deal to me because I’ve been an educator for most of my professional career and I consider it to be the greatest job in the world,” said Corbett, who received $3,000 as an award recipient.
Corbett joined the LSU Law faculty in 1991, two years after graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law as a member of The Order of the Coif and Editor in Chief of the Alabama Law Review. He currently holds the Frank L. Maraist Professorship, Wex S. Malone Professorship, and Rosemary Neal Hawkland Professorship, and teaches courses such as Employment Law, Employment Discrimination, Labor Law, Comparative Labor Law, Torts, Relational Torts, Federal Civil Procedure, and Louisiana Civil Procedure.
“Professor Corbett’s teaching spans a wide range of subjects, where he has skillfully imparted knowledge to generations of law students,” said LSU Senior Vice Provost Jane Cassidy at the awards ceremony. “Effective teachers demonstrate a deep and passionate understanding of their subject matter; however, equally important are exceptional communication skills. Professor Corbett embodies both of these in his teaching style, and he is particularly adept at building strong, empathetic relationships with his students and fostering a rigorous and supportive classroom environment.”
Outside the classroom, Corbett has served in a variety of administrative roles at LSU Law throughout his career. From May 1997 to January 200, he served as Interim Vice Chancellor and then Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, and from August 2015 to July 2016 he served as Interim Co-Dean and then Interim Dean. He also led the Louisiana Judicial College from 1998 to 2000 as Executive Director, and currently serves as Executive Director of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, a position he has held since January 2001.
When Corbett reflects on his career at LSU Law, he recalls the important colleagues and mentors who inspired and informed his career path, especially the late Professors Cheney Joseph (’70) and Frank Maraist (’58).
“I served as co-dean with Cheney Joseph before he passed, and he was not just a colleague but a dear friend. He lived to teach—it was what he loved,” Corbett said. “Frank Maraist was a mentor to many and a legendary torts teacher. He took many of us under his wing and helped us become better. I just hope I can be to my students what they were to me.”
Over the past three-plus decades, Corbett has garnered a reputation for building strong, empathetic relationships with his students while fostering a rigorous and supportive classroom environment. The LSU Law Class of 2017 voted him Professor of the Year, and the Louisiana Bar Foundation named him its 2013 Distinguished Professor.
“I took Professor Corbett for Basic Civil Procedure and then later for Labor & Employment Law, and he was held in very high regard by his students,” said David Tullis (’95), a research attorney for the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Shreveport. “He had not been at the Law Center for long back then, and he would sometimes regale us with tales from his time as a student and a young lawyer in Alabama. While he was a tough grader, he treated everyone fairly and with kindness.”
Corbett’s colleagues in academia hold him in the same high regard as his students. In 2018, he was inducted as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. The college is an international membership association of roughly 1,000 of the best and brightest lawyers who practice in labor employment law, and Corbett is one of just 16 legal professionals in Louisiana who have been inducted as a fellow.
LSU Law Professor Bill Corbett has been a member of the LSU Law faculty since 1991.
From an early age, Corbett aspired to be a teacher, though not necessarily a law professor.
“I had no lawyers in my family and didn’t know much about the practice of law growing up,” he recalled of his upbringing in Phenix City, a small Alabama city situated just across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, Georgia. “But I started working at a law firm after my senior year of high school and enjoyed seeing what the legal practice looked like. That was my introduction to the law, but I wanted to start teaching as quickly as possible at the time, so I put the law on the backburner for a few years.”
He earned a B.A. in English education from Auburn University in 1982 and subsequently taught at Auburn High School for three years before deciding to pursue his law degree. After earning his law degree in 1989 he immediately joined Burr & Forman in Birmingham, as an associate specializing in general litigation and labor and employment.
“Once I got into practice, I worked in the labor and employment field and loved interacting with clients and businesses and getting to know them on a personal level,” he recalled. “I had so many incredible colleagues and mentors in practice who taught me about the law and about life.”
While Corbett enjoyed his time as a practicing attorney, his desire to return to the classroom was ultimately too large to ignore. And though he has spent time as a visiting professor at the University of Georgia School of Law and William & Mary Law School, he has been an LSU Law faculty member for the entirety of his academic career.
“I loved my time as a visiting professor, but I’ve always been glad to get back to the students at LSU Law. They’re respectful, hardworking, and some of the brightest minds in the nation,” Corbett said. “One of the most satisfying things for any teacher is seeing their students find fulfillment in their careers after they graduate. I’ve seen students of mine do some incredible things—everything from being appointed as judges and receiving awards to starting their own law firms—and that’s really what make being an educator so gratifying.”
Along with leading law students in the classroom, Corbett frequently presents to his colleagues in academic as well as lawyers and judges on labor and employment law as well as civil procedure and torts at legal symposia and continuing education events throughout the country.
“In addition to being a dedicated teacher, Professor Corbett has a consistent and exemplary scholarly record. His publications, including numerous law review articles, reflect a dedication to using legal scholarship to pursue the ideal of justice,” said Cassidy at the awards ceremony. “Beyond his teaching and research, Bill has held various significant administrative roles, where he demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision.”
See the full list of 2024 University Faculty Award honorees.
