Bigelow Fellow Tony Casey, '02, to Join Law School's Permanent Faculty

The newest addition to the University of Chicago Law School’s faculty will be a familiar face to students and some alumni. The Law School has announced that Tony Casey, current Bigelow Teaching Fellow and an alumnus from the class of 2002, is joining the permanent Law School faculty in July as an assistant professor of law.

“Tony would have always been part of our school, having graduated in 2002 and then having served as a Bigelow. But now we get to have him with us, hopefully forever,” said Michael H. Schill, the Law School’s Dean and Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law. “In his short time here as a Bigelow Fellow, Tony has proven himself to be a superb teacher and an up-and-coming scholar. I’m excited that future students will have the opportunity to benefit from all he has to offer.”

Casey graduated from Georgetown University in 1999 magna cum laude with an AB in economics and government and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended the Law School, receiving his JD with high honors in 2002. He was the recipient of the John M. Olin Prize and a member of the Law Review and the Order of the Coif.

After law school, Casey clerked for then-Chief Judge Joel M. Flaum of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From 2004 to 2006, Anthony worked as an associate in the Litigation Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York. There his practice focused on transaction and takeover litigation, white-collar investigations, and securities litigation. Casey then moved to Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, where he added the areas of bankruptcy litigation and complex class actions to his practice. He became a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in 2008.

The next year, he joined the Law School as a Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law, one of six such fellows who teach the legal research and writing course to first-year students. Mark Jackson, ’12, said Casey’s class was one of the best he’s taken so far at the Law School.

“Tony was approachable from the beginning and could completely relate to our experience,” Jackson said. “At the same time, he was excellent at conveying the most important lessons in writing, and he really took an interest improving our legal writing. He was also a great resource about what it's like in the real world - what to expect at a firm, what they look for, which skills are most important to develop. And he was a lot of fun, not to mention brilliant. I think he'll make a fantastic professor.”

Students soon learned that Casey didn’t restrict his influence to the classroom. Jackson said Casey gave him advice on navigating the Law School and on classes, and helped him work with the Law School administration. Other students received similar help.

Tony has become one of my most reliable sources for career advice,” said Nathan Viehl, ‘12. “I've always found it quite remarkable how eager Tony is to advise students who aren't even in his class.” 

Casey has also provided students moral support by participating in organized activities outside of class. Most recently, he and other Bigelow Fellows donned Law School aprons to serve breakfast to students studying at the Law School late into the night before Winter Quarter exams.

“Tony is an active supporter of student organizations and my office's initiatives to improve student life,” said Dean of Students Amy M. Gardner, who also was a Law School classmate of Casey’s. “It means a lot to students to spend time with faculty in a setting outside the classroom, and I know the students have had fun seeing Tony and other Bigelow Fellows and professors serving pancakes at quarterly late-night breakfasts during reading period and handing out pie before Thanksgiving. I'm also thrilled that the class of 2002 will be represented in both the Law School's administration and the permanent faculty, and look forward to continuing to work with Tony for many years to come."

Casey's research and teaching interests include corporations, corporate bankruptcy and reorganization, securities regulation, finance, and law and economics. His journal article “The Creditors' Bargain and Option-Preservation Priority in Chapter 11” will be published in Summer 2011 in the University of Chicago Law Review.