Gerry W. Beyer joined the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Law in June 2005 as the first holder of the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professorship. Previously, Prof. Beyer taught at St. Mary’s University and has served as a visiting professor at several other law schools including Boston College, The Ohio State University, Southern Methodist University, the University of New Mexico, Santa Clara University, and La Trobe University (Australia). He is the recipient of dozens of outstanding and distinguished faculty awards including the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the most prestigious university-wide teaching award at Texas Tech. Prof. Beyer was also the recipient of the 2012-2013 Outstanding Researcher Award from the Texas Tech School of Law. As a state and nationally recognized expert in estate planning, Prof. Beyer is a highly sought after lecturer. He presents dozens of continuing legal education presentations each year for many state and local bar associations, universities, and civic groups. Prof. Beyer is the editor of the most popular estate planning blawg in the nation which for the past four years has been named to the ABA Journal's Blawg 100. He has authored and co-authored numerous books and articles focusing on various aspects of estate planning, including a two volume treatise on Texas wills law, an estate planning casebook, and the Wills, Trusts, and Estates volume of the Examples & Explanations series. He has three times won awards from the American Bar Association’s Probate & Property magazine for his writing and is one of the most often downloaded law authors on the Social Science Research Network. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the REPTL Reporter, the official journal of the Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. Prof. Beyer serves as a mentor to many students and various law school organizations as well participating regularly in pro bono activities. He is the advisor for the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal and its annual seminar. Professor Beyer received his J.D. from the Ohio State University and his LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Order of the Coif, an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and a member of the American Law Institute.

About Us: Texas Tech University School of Law boasts a rich history spanning more than 45 years. In the 1930s, Alvin R. Allison, a self-described “country lawyer from Levelland,” could not afford to attend one of the three American Bar Association-accredited law schools in Texas. Instead of attending law school, he earned his law license by apprenticing under a local attorney for two years and passing the Texas Bar Examination in 1934. His struggle to become a lawyer inspired his quest to establish a law school in West Texas at his alma mater, Texas Technological College. The Texas Tech Board of Directors hired Richard B. Amandes as the School of Law’s first dean in 1966, and in 1967, the first class, comprised of 72 students, enrolled at Texas Tech Law. The ABA granted accreditation to the school in August 1970, which followed accreditation from the Supreme Court of Texas in 1968. In 1969, Texas Tech Law gained membership to the Association of American Law Schools. Since opening, the School of Law has graduated thousands of students, including the first woman to head a major federal law enforcement agency, the Army’s highest-ranked military legal officer, and some of the nation’s top litigators. Texas Tech Law offers a robust clinical program, three academic centers, nine dual-degree programs, three concentration programs, a regional externship program, a recognized legal practice program, and a competitive advocacy program that has earned 31 national and international championships. Ranked second in student satisfaction among U.S. law schools and six-time ranked “Best Value Law School” by The National Jurist, it is no surprise that Texas Tech Law attracts professors who are passionate about teaching. In fact, Texas Tech Law professors have won the University’s Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award in two of the past four years, and five professors have been recognized with the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award since 2010. The Princeton Review has named Texas Tech Law professors among the nation's most accessible, and for three consecutive years, Texas Tech Law was listed in the top-25 law schools for Hispanic students by Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine. With quality students, talented faculty, and devoted staff, the School of Law continues to produce gifted attorneys who work across the state, region and country.