The American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) will honor Catherine M. Sharkey, the Segal Family Professor of Regulatory Law and Policy at New York University School of Law, with its Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award. The award recognizes law professors who have 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.
The award will be presented at the ABA Midyear Meeting in New Orleans during the TIPS Networking Reception on Saturday, February 4, at 6 p.m. at the New Orleans Marriott.
Sharkey is a leading authority in the fields of torts, products liability and administrative law, with a special focus on public nuisance, the economic loss rule, punitive damages, the regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices and federal preemption of state tort law. She is co-author (with Richard Epstein) of “Cases and Materials on Torts” (12th ed., 2020). Sharkey has published more than 50 law review articles, essays, reviews and book chapters in the fields of torts, products liability, administrative law, remedies and class actions and was one of the 10 most-cited law faculty writing on torts and/or insurance law in the U.S. from 2016-20. She also has been widely cited by state and federal courts. Sharkey was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011-12.
Sharkey clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before joining the faculty at Columbia Law School and later NYU School of Law, She worked for several years as an appellate litigation associate at Mayer Brown in New York.
Sharkey received her B.A. from Yale University. A Rhodes Scholar, she received an M.S. in economics for development from Oxford University and her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.
“Professor Sharkey is a renowned and highly prolific contributor in the area of tort law, advancing the scholarship and knowledge of not only her students, but lawyers in the field as well as both federal and state courts where she is widely cited,” said TIPS Chair Gary L. Gassman. “We are delighted to recognize her with this Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award.”
