Joshua M. Silverstein

Professor of Law

(501) 916-5460 | Room 407
Email: [email protected]
Faculty Assistant: Sam Smith | Room 524 | (501) 916-5440 | [email protected]

Curriculum Vitae

Josh Silverstein teaches courses on contract law, constitutional law, constitutional theory, and legal philosophy. His colleagues and students describe him as a gifted teacher, and he brings extraordinary energy and organization to every class. Professor Silverstein employs a plethora of best practices to maximize the effectiveness of his pedagogy. Professor Silverstein has won numerous awards for his teaching, including the Faculty Excellence Award at the law school level twice and at the university level once.

Professor Silverstein’s scholarly research has focused on three areas—bankruptcy law, contract law, and legal education. One reviewer described some of Professor Silverstein’s published works as “exhaustively researched and meticulously and persuasively argued.” Professor Silverstein’s publications have received national attention from courts and the media. One of his bankruptcy articles was cited by four justices of the United States Supreme Court in their dissenting opinion in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., 603 U.S. 204, 271 (2024). Two of his contracts articles are quoted extensively in Corbin on Contracts, the leading treatise on contract law. Professor Silverstein is a co-author of Problems in Contract Law, perhaps the most popular contracts casebook. And his piece, “A Case for Grade Inflation in Legal Education,” was covered by the Wall Street Journal, the American Bar Association, Above the Law, truTV, MSN Now, the National Review Online, Quora, and Reddit, among other sources. Professor Silverstein is a two-time recipient of the law school’s Faculty Excellence Award for Research.

Professor Silverstein’s service has included spearheading major curriculum reforms at the law school and advocating for academic freedom and tenure at the University of Arkansas generally. For example, Professor Silverstein designed and was the principal drafter of the law school’s grading policy. He chaired the committee that developed the law school’s academic freedom policy. And he is a member of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Tenure Committee. Professor Silverstein is the president of the board of directors of a public interest organization, has served on several bar association committees, and has made nearly sixty public presentations. He has been quoted in the local and national press – including by the New York Times, Reuters, and Bloomberg – over three hundred times as an expert on bankruptcy law, constitutional law, civil procedure, contracts, and grading theory. Professor Silverstein is the faculty advisor for five student organizations at the law school, including the Student Bar Association. He has also performed more than six hundred hours of pro bono legal services. Finally, Professor Silverstein has worked on numerous bills and proposed constitutional amendments pending before the Arkansas state legislature and has testified at legislative committee hearings dozens of times. Professor Silverstein’s work on academic freedom earned him the law school’s Faculty Excellence Award for Public Service.

After graduating from law school, Professor Silverstein served as a law clerk to the Honorable Suzanne B. Conlon, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. Professor Silverstein then served as a litigation associate at two Chicago law firms—Mayer Brown and Freeborn & Peters. At those firms, he worked on a wide variety of cases, including products liability, bankruptcy, antitrust, and business tort disputes.