Associate Professor of Law

Teri Dobbins joined the Saint Louis University School of Law faculty in 2002 after five years in private practice. Professor Dobbins was an associate in the litigation section at Locke Liddell & Sapp, a Texas-based firm with more than 400 attorneys. While there, she primarily represented financial and insurance institutions in contract and tort cases.

“I loved the variety,” Dobbins says. “I liked the challenge of never knowing what was coming up next.”

Professor Dobbins gained significant litigation experience in state and federal court. She also honed her writing skills through appellate experience that included drafting petitions for writ of mandamus, petitions for review and briefs on the merits in the state courts of appeal, the Texas Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

All of this experience took Professor Dobbins to where she ultimately wanted to be — in academia. “I was attracted to academia as a law student,” she says. “I liked being able to explore issues from the policy perspective. It’s one thing to know the rule, it’s another to know why we have it or question whether we should change it. But I wanted to gain some practical experience before I began teaching.”

Professor Dobbins has found her practical experience to be invaluable at the School of Law. “In the classroom, students learn the rules and read the cases but it’s not always clear how the rules are applied in the real world or why they matter,” she says. “It’s nice to be able to draw on my experience to help students understand the practical effects of what they’re learning.”