Robert H. Sitkoff, currently a tenured professor at the New York University School of Law and an expert in trusts and estates, has accepted an offer to join the Harvard Law School faculty.
“Rob Sitkoff is doing the most exciting and important academic work in trust and estates that anyone has seen in years,” Dean Elena Kagan ’86 said. “His work is especially notable for its combination of rigorous legal analysis and empirical grounding. He is the future of the field and a worthy heir to the great Harvard tradition of Austin Wakeman Scott, Barton Leach, and James Casner. Rob is also an enormously gifted teacher, as demonstrated by his shelf full of teaching awards. I am simply delighted that he is bringing his enormous energy and talents to the HLS community.”
Sitkoff’s scholarship has appeared in leading publications such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Journal of Law and Economics. He is also a co-author of “Wills, Trusts, and Estates,” the leading American trusts and estates casebook, and the co-author of the forthcoming book “Lawyers, Banks, and Money: The Revolution in Modern American Trust Law,” to be published by Yale University Press.
“I am excited to be joining the Harvard community,” Sitkoff said. “The Harvard Law School has a rich history in the trusts and estates field, and it is a privilege to help continue that tradition.”
Sitkoff was the John L. Gray Visiting Professor of Law at HLS this past spring. Prior to becoming a tenured professor at NYU in 2006, Sitkoff was at the Northwestern University School of Law, first as an assistant professor and then as an associate professor. He also visited at the University of Michigan Law School in 2004. Sitkoff won teaching awards at Northwestern in 2001 and 2002, and at NYU in 2007.
In addition to his scholarly work and teaching, Sitkoff was appointed as the reporter, or principal drafter, for the Uniform Law Commission’s effort to create a uniform statutory business trust act. Sitkoff is also a member of two consultative drafting groups of the American Law Institute: the Restatement of Trusts group and the Restatement of Property, Wills, and Other Donative Transfers group.
He holds a B.A. with distinction from the University of Virginia and a J.D. with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School. After graduating from law school, Sitkoff was a clerk for the Honorable Richard A. Posner, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Sitkoff will join several new faculty members, including Noah Feldman, Kathy Spier, Gabriella Blum, and James Greiner, when he begins at HLS this fall. He is the 19th tenured or tenure-track professor hired by HLS in the past four academic years. In the fall, there will be 91 full-time faculty members at HLS, including 76 tenured professors, seven tenure-track professors, and eight clinical professors.