Donald G. Gifford is the Edward M. Robertson Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law. His teaching and research interests include Mass Products Torts, Torts, Insurance Law, Advanced Torts, and Legal Negotiation. Professor Gifford is the author or co-author of three books, including both a torts casebook and a legal negotiation text, and numerous articles about topics including mass torts, products liability, and medical malpractice. In Spring 2010, the University of Michigan Press is expected to publish his latest book, a critical analysis of government tort litigation against manufacturers that is intended to address public health problems caused by products as cigarettes and lead pigment.

Gifford served as Dean on the University of Maryland School of Law from 1992 through 1999. He initiated the efforts to build the current law school building, obtained the legislative approval and funding for the building, raised most of the private contributions for it, and saw the building project through its initial architectural design phases. Under his leadership, the level of private giving to the law school quadrupled.  Gifford served both as co-chair of the American Bar Association Deans’ Workshops in 1995 and 1996 and as co-chair of the ABA Law School Development Conference in 2001.

Prior to coming to Maryland, Gifford served as Dean of the West Virginia University College of Law and as Professor of Law at the University of Florida. The students at Florida twice recognized Gifford with awards for outstanding teaching. While at Florida, Professor Gifford worked with the Florida legislature on issues of tort and insurance reform and was the principal draftsman of the Medical Incident Recovery Act of 1988. Gifford, an Ohio native, is a graduate of the College of Wooster, where he was valedictorian, and a cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School.

Gifford served as Chair of the Maryland Lead Paint Poisoning Commission from 1992 until 1995, and in that role was a principal architect of Maryland’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Act. Since that time, he has promoted legislation designed to eliminate or reduce childhood lead poisoning in ten other states and in the United States Congress. He is a member of the American Law Institute.