Robert K. Rasmussen

J. Thomas McCarthy Trustee Chair in Law and Political Science
Last Updated: October 21, 2024

Robert K. Rasmussen joined USC Gould School of Law in August 2007.  Rasmussen’s scholarship focuses on corporate restructurings, both inside and outside of bankruptcy. He teaches Contracts, Business Bankruptcy and The Syndicated Loan as well as an undergraduate class on the Legal Profession. Rasmussen was named the J. Thomas McCarthy Trustee Chair in Law and Political Science in 2015.

Rasmussen, who served as dean from 2007 to 2015, taught at Vanderbilt Law School for almost two decades. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and University of Michigan law schools.

A widely cited scholar, Rasmussen is the author or co-author of dozens of articles published in some of the country’s leading law journals, including the Supreme Court Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, the Michigan Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. He has played a role in shaping the jurisprudence in his field as the principal author of an amicus curiae brief on behalf of nine law professors in the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court case Bank of America v. 203 North LaSalle Street Partnership; was the principal author of an amicus curiae brief on behalf of three law professors in Integrated Telecom Express, Inc., a 2004 case decided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; and was the principal author of an amicus curiae brief on behalf of seven law professors in Owens Corning, a 2005 case also decided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a member of the American Law Institute, and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the AccessLex Institute.