Education

B.S., 1967, Loyola University (Chicago)
J.D., 1970, University of Michigan

About

Professor Sobieski came to the UT College of Law in 1972 after clerking for Justice Walter V. Schaefer of the Supreme Court of Illinois and serving as a lieutenant (JAGC) in the United States Navy. He was named Lindsay Young Distinguished Professor of Law at UT in 1986.

In addition to serving for eleven years as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and for two years as Interim Dean of the College, Professor Sobieski has served as a member or chaired every major law school committee, including the Governance Committee, Self-Study Committee, Academic Standards and Curriculum Committee, Teaching Improvement and Faculty Development Committee, the Technology Committee, several Dean Search Committees, and numerous Faculty and Administrative Appointments Committees. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Professor Sobieski has been honored with the College’s Carden Award for Extraordinary Service three times, in 1993, 2006, and again in 2008.

Professor Sobieski has chaired the search committees for the Dean of the College of Art and Architecture and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research of the College of Communications. He has also served as a member of Committee A of the UT Chapter of the AAUP. In addition, he served for three years as a member of the University’s Information and Technology Roundtable, and was a member of the Twenty-First Century Committee. In honor of his outstanding teaching and service, Professor Sobieski was named the University Macebearer for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Professor Sobieski has received the Harold C. Warner Outstanding Teacher Award twice, the Tennessee Bar Association’s Outstanding Law Professor Award, the Carden Faculty Award for Outstanding Service, the Bass, Berry & Sims Award for Outstanding Service to the Bench and Bar, the Forrest W. Lacey Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Moot Court Board (twice), and the Carden Award for Superior Achievement in Scholarship. He is co-author of the seven-volume Civil Rights Actions and helped to draft the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure. While in law school Professor Sobieski was one of the Note and Comment Editors for the Michigan Law Review.

Professor Sobieski was the 2009 Macebearer, the highest faculty honor awarded at the University of Tennessee.