University of St. Thomas

Professor Vischer's CV

J.D. Harvard Law School
B.A. University of New Orleans

Q&A School of Law News
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Rob Vischer’s scholarship explores the intersection of law, religion, and public policy, with a particular focus on the religious and moral dimensions of professional identity.  His current book project, titled Conscience and the Common Good: Reclaiming the Space Between Person and State, defines and defends the relational dimension of conscience and identifies ways in which our legal system can better maintain the communal venues in which the dictates of conscience are shaped, articulated, and lived out.  His scholarship has appeared in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Illinois Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Florida Law Review, Indiana Law Review, Stanford Journal of Law & Policy, Journal of Law & Religion, Legal Ethics, Journal of Catholic Social Thought, and Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, among others. He also writes for the magazines Commonweal and America, and blogs regularly at Mirror of Justice and Legal Ethics Forum.  He has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Law & Religion and the University of Chicago Press.  Professor Vischer teaches Professional Responsibility, Torts, Family Law, Foundations of Justice, and The Religious Lawyer.  In 2007, he received the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching and in 2008, he was voted Professor of the Year by the graduating class. 

Professor Vischer came to St. Thomas from St. John's University Law School, where he was an Assistant Professor of Law and Fellow of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society. While at St. John's, Professor Vischer received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching and was voted Professor of the Year by the student body.  Previously, Professor Vischer was associated with Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, where he practiced corporate litigation.  He clerked for three federal judges: Judge David Ebel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Joan Gottschall of the Northern District of Illinois, and Judge John Wiese of the Court of Federal Claims. He received his B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of New Orleans, and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

You may download copies of Professor Vischer’s articles here.

Representative Scholarship

Conscience and the Common Good: Reclaiming the Space Between Person and State (Cambridge Univ. Press) (forthcoming 2009)

Professionalizing Moral Engagement, 103 N.W. L. Rev. Colloquy (2009) (invited symposium contribution)

Moral Engagement Without the “Moral Law”: A Post-Canons View of Attorneys’ Moral Accountability, Prof’l Lawyer (forthcoming) (invited symposium contribution)

Corporate Identity and Moral Pluralism: Reclaiming the Relational Dimension of Conscience, 5 J. of Catholic Social Thought 323 (2008) (peer-reviewed journal)

The Best Interests of the Child: Modern Lessons from the Christian Traditions, in The Vocation of the Child (J. Witte & P. Brennan, eds.) (2008)

Solidarity, Subsidiarity, and the Consumerist Impetus of American Law, in Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law (M. Scaperlanda & T. Collett, eds.) (2007)

Conscience in Context: Pharmacist Rights and the Eroding Moral Marketplace, 17 Stan. Law & Pol’y Rev. 83 (2006)

Legal Advice as Moral Perspective, 19 GEO. J. LEGAL ETHICS 225 (2006)

Professional Identity and the Contours of Prudence, 4 Univ. of St. Thomas L.J. 46 (2006) (invited symposium contribution)

The Sanctity of Conscience in an Age of School Choice: Grounds for Skepticism, 6 Maryland L.J. of Race, Religion, Gender and Class 81 (2006) (invited symposium contribution)

Subsidiarity and Suffering: The View from New Orleans, 45 J. of Catholic Leg. Stud. 183 (2006)Legal Advice as Moral Perspective, 19 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 225 (2006).

Religious Education and the Liberal State, 44 Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 57 (2005) (symposium introduction).

Catholics and Religious Liberty, in Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties (Routledge 2006).

Subsidiarity and Subversion: Local Power, Legal Norms, and the Liberal State, 2 Journal of Catholic Social Thought 277 (2005) (peer-reviewed journal).

Pluralism and Professionalism: The Question of Authority, 8 Legal Ethics 35 (2005) (peer-reviewed journal).

Heretics in the Temple of Law: The Promise and Peril of the Religious Lawyering Movement, 19 Journal of Law & Religion 427 (2004) (peer-reviewed journal).

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Rethinking the Value of Associations, 79 Notre Dame Law Review 949 (2004).

Faith, Pluralism, and the Practice of Law, 43 Catholic Lawyer 17 (2004).

Catholic Social Thought and the Ethical Formation of Lawyers: A Call for Community, 1 Journal of Catholic Social Thought 417 (2004) (peer-reviewed journal).

Public Opinion and the Culture Wars: The Case of School Vouchers, 2002 Illinois Law Review 477 (review of Terry Moe, Schools, Vouchers and the American Public).

Subsidiarity as a Principle of Governance: Beyond Devolution, 35 Indiana Law Review 103 (2001).

Racial Segregation in American Churches and Its Implications for School Vouchers, 53 Florida Law Review 193 (2001).

Note, The Evidentiary Use of the Ethics Codes in Legal Malpractice: Erasing a Double Standard, 109 Harvard Law Review 1102 (1996).

Book Note, Religion and Roe: The Politics of Exclusion, 108 Harvard Law Review 495 (1994) (review of Elizabeth Mensch & Alan Freeman, The Politics of Virtue: Is Abortion Debatable?).

Courses Taught

Torts
Family Law
The Religious Lawyer
Professional Responsibility

Mailing Address

MSL 400
1000 LaSalle Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403-2015