Michael T. Flannery

Judge George Howard, Jr. Professorship
BA, 1987, University of Delaware; JD, 1991, The Catholic University of America
Room 519 | Phone: 501-916-541f | Email
Assistant: Room 524 | Phone: 501-916-5440

Professor's SSRN page Bowen Law Scholarship Repository Professor's HEIN Profile

Michael_Flannery photoMichael Flannery joined the law school in 2003 and was named the Judge George Howard, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law in 2010. He served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development from 2014 to 2016, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2018 to 2020. He teaches Decedents’ Estates and Trusts, The Prudent Investing of Trusts, Family Law, The Sexual Exploitation of Children, Animal Law, and Sports Law. He served as a Special Judge for the 20th Judicial District of the State of Arkansas between 2008 and 2011. He also serves as a Legislative Expert Liaison for the Arkansas Bar Association’s Legislative Committee on Family Law. Professor Flannery earned the Faculty Excellence Award for Research in 2017, 2010, and 2006, and earned the Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching in 2012. Professor Flannery also won the 2016 John M. DiPippa Scholarship Award for his case book entitled, “The Sexual Exploitation of Children.” He was featured on National Public Radio as an “Agent of Change.” He is the author of 10 books, 2 book chapters, 14 law review articles, and 12 expert commentaries. Professor Flannery wrote as an expert commentator for the Trusts and Estates division of Matthew Bender’s LexisNexis Expert Commentaries. While at Catholic University, he was a board member on the Moot Court Association, a staff member on the Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy, and special features editor for the Judicial Notice newspaper. Upon graduation, he worked as an Assistant City Solicitor in Philadelphia. While with the City Solicitor’s Office, he represented the Department of Human Services in child dependency litigation and the County Office of Mental Health in mental health law litigation. Professor Flannery also worked in the special litigation division, focusing on prison riot litigation. In 1994, he joined the law firm of Gold-Bikin, Clifford and Young as an associate, where he practiced in the area of domestic relations and divorce litigation. He then joined the law firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen before joining the faculty at the Villanova University School of Law, where he taught for eight years before joining the faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Professor Flannery’s research has been cited by the Alabama Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Iowa, the Supreme Court of Michigan, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, the Supreme Court of Texas, the Colorado Court of Appeals, the First District Court of Appeals of Florida, the Court of Appeals of Georgia, the Court of Appeals of Minnesota, and the Supreme Court of New York. He speaks regularly on various panel symposia and is a member of numerous bar associations and legal organizations.

Professor Flannery’s publications include:

Books

“Family Law: A Context and Practice Casebook” (forthcoming, Carolina Academic Press);

“The Sexual Exploitation of Children” (Carolina Academic Press, 2016) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“The Sexual Exploitation of Children, Teacher’s Manual” (Carolina Academic Press, 2016) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“Decedents’ Estates: Cases and Materials” (3d, Carolina Academic Press 2016) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“Decedents’ Estates: Cases and Materials, Teacher’s Manual” (3d, Carolina Academic Press 2016) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“The Fundamentals of Elder Law” (Foundation Press, 2015) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“The Fundamentals of Elder Law, Teacher’s Manual” (Foundation Press, 2015) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“Living Trusts: Forms and Practice” (Matthew Bender, 2009 – 2018) (revision author);

“The Prudent Investing of Trusts: Cases and Materials” (Carolina Academic Press, Summer 2009) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“The Prudent Investing of Trusts: Cases and Materials, Teacher’s Manual” (Carolina Academic Press, Summer 2009) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

“Long-Term Care: Federal, State, and Private Options for the Future” (Haworth Press, Inc., New York, 1997) (with Raymond C. O’Brien).

Book Chapters

Affairs of the Heart, in “Courting the Yankees: Legal Essays on the Bronx Bombers” (Carolina Academic Press 2003) (reprinted in 10 Villanova Sports & Entertainment Law Journal 211 (2003);

“The Pennsylvania Bar Institute Family Law Update” (1995 – 1996).

Expert Commentaries

An Update on Planning for Pets and the Pet Trust, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2011 Emerging Issues 6068 (Nov. 2011);

The ‘Fiduciary Exception’ to Attorney Client Privilege in Cases Involving Native American Trusts, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2010 Emerging Issues 5176 (June 2010);

Considering Post-Death Events in Valuing Deductions for Claims Against the Estate under Internal Revenue Code §2053(a)(3), LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2010 Emerging Issues 5089 (June 2010);

Special Accounting Issues for All Living Trusts under the Uniform Principal and Income Act, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2009 Emerging Issues 4336 (Sept. 2009);

Equating Marital and Probate Interests Through the Elective Share, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2009 Emerging Issues 4191 (Aug. 2009);

Adult Adoptions, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2009 Emerging Issues 3980 (July 2009);

The Appointment of Probate Administrators and Estate of Garrett, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2009 Emerging Issues 3561 (Apr. 2009);

Let No Bad Deed Go Rewarded: The Case of In re R.W., LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2009 Emerging Issues 3556 (Apr. 2009);

The Division of Assets Owned by Decedents Who Were Engaged in a “Committed Intimate Relationship”: Olver v. Fowler, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2008 Emerging Issues 2037 (Apr. 2008);

Revoking a Valid Will, Even When the Revocation Frustrates the Clearly-Established Intent of the Testator: Langston v. Langston (Ark.), LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2008 Emerging Issues 2038 (Apr. 2008);

State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, Formal Opinion No. 2007-173, LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2008 Emerging Issues 2061 (May 2008);

The Intestacy Rights of a Child Created as an Embryo by In Vitro Fertilization During the Parents’ Marriage, but Who is Implanted in the Mother’s Womb After the Father’s Death: Finley v. Astrue (AR Sup. Ct. 2008), LexisNexis Expert Commentary, 2008 Emerging Issues 2060 (May 2008).

Articles

The “Uncanny Valley” and the Verisimilitude of Sexual Offenders–Part I:  An “Ethorobotic” Perspective, 6 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 501 (forthcoming, 2019);

Social Security, Divorce, and the Scope of Federal Preemption, 66 Buffalo Law Review 1 (2018);

“Rethinking” Embryo Disposition Upon Divorce, 29 Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy 233 (2013);

  • Cited by the Supreme Court of Michigan in Karungi v. Ejalu, 501 Mich. 1051, 909 N.W.2d 269 (2018);
  • Cited by the Colorado Court of Appeals in In re Marriage of Rooks, ___ P.3d ___, 2016 WL 6123561, 2016 COA 153 (2016), rev’d 429 P.3d 579 (2018);

Military Disability Election and the Distribution of Marital Property Upon Divorce, 56 Catholic University of America Law Review 297 (2007);

  • Quoted by the Court of Appeals of Minnesota in Mattson v. Mattson, 903 N.W.2d 233 (Minn. Ct. App. 2017);
  • Cited by the Supreme Court of Texas in Hagen v. Hagen, 282 S.W.3d 899 (Tex. 2009);

The Use of Hair Analysis to Test Children for Exposure to Methamphetamine, 10 Journal of Medicine and Law 143 (2006) (with Jerry G. Jones, MD, Karen Boyd Worley, Ph.D., Toss Worthington, RNP, & Stanley Rauls);

Is “Bird Nesting” In the Best Interest of Children?, 57 Southern Methodist University Law Review 295 (2004);

  • Cited by the Supreme Court of New York in L.M.L. v. H.T.N., 57 Misc. 3d 1207(A), 2017 WL 4507541 (Oct. 3, 2017);
  • Cited by the Supreme Court of Iowa in In re Marriage of Hansen, 733 N.W.2d 683 (Iowa 2007);

Philadelphia, in From Blueprint to bricks: A Survey of Current Baseball Stadium Financing Projects, 34 Urban Lawyer 381 (2002);

First, Do No Harm: The Use of Covert Video Surveillance to Detect Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy–An Unethical Means of “Preventing” Child Abuse, 32 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 105 (1999);

  • Cited by the First District Court of Appeal of Florida in State v. Butler, 1 So. 3d 242 (2008);
  • Cited by the Supreme Court of New Jersey in State v. Stott, 171 N.J. 343, 794 A.2d 120 (N.J. 2002);

Mandatory HIV Testing of Professional Boxers: An Unconstitutional Effort to Regulate A Sport That Needs to Be Regulated, 31 University of California, Davis Law Review 409 (1998) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

Against All Odds: Representing Fathers in Custody Disputes, 31 Trial 44 (Aug. 1995);

Reprinted in 9 Minnesota Family Law Journal 49 (1995);

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: Broadening the Scope of Child Abuse, 28 University of Richmond Law Review 1175 (1994);

  • Cited by the District Court of Appeal of Florida in State v. Butler, 1 So. 3d 242 (2008);
  • Cited by the Court of Appeals of Georgia in In re A.B., 267 Ga. App. 466, 600 S.E.2d 409 (2004);

Norplant: The New Scarlet Letter?, 8 Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy 201 (1992);

Court-Ordered Prenatal Intervention: The Final Means to the End of Gestational Substance Abuse, 30 Journal of Family Law 519 (1991-1992);

  • Cited by the Alabama Supreme Court in In re Anonymous, 720 So. 2d 497 (Ala. 1998);
  • Cited by the First District Court of Appeal of Florida in T.H. v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 661 So. 2d 403 (1995);

The Pending Gauntlet to Free Exercise: Mandating That Clergy Report Child Abuse, 25 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 1 (1991) (with Raymond C. O’Brien);

  • Cited by the Supreme Court of Texas in Perry v. S.N., 973 S.W.2d 301 (Tex. 1998);
  • Cited by the Supreme Court of New Jersey in State v. Szemple, 135 N.J. 406, 640 A.2d 817 (1994).