This March, Robert A. Hillman, Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14^th Annual International Conference on Contracts (KCON XIV), the largest annual scholarly and educational conference devoted to Contracts and related areas of commercial law.

Hillman in class in 2003

KCON welcomes contracts, scholars, and teachers of all experience levels, as well as those preparing to enter the academy and scholars whose primary teaching appointments are not in law schools.

The two-day event offers an opportunity to present and discuss ideas on wide ranges of topics at every level of development including recently-published articles, works in progress, thought experiments, initial ideas and teaching innovations. The event also provides an important networking opportunity with colleagues and potential collaborators or mentors from around the globe.

Professor Hillman has written extensively on contracts and contract theory, the Uniform Commercial Code, and related jurisprudence. His articles have appeared in the Stanford, NYU, Columbia, Chicago, Michigan, Northwestern, Duke, and Cornell law reviews, and he is the author of The Richness of Contract Law (1997) and a coauthor of the Sixth Edition of White, Summers, and Hillman, Uniform Commercial Code (2012 through 2014). In addition, he is a co-editor of the casebook, Summers, Hillman, and Hoffman, Contract and Related Obligation (7th edition 2016).

A 1972 graduate of Cornell Law School, Professor Hillman clerked for the Hon. Edward C. McLean and the Hon. Robert J. Ward, both U.S. District Judges for the Southern District of New York. After private practice with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City, he began his teaching career at the University of Iowa College of Law. Hillman joined the Cornell Law School Faculty in 1982, and, in addition to teaching and authoring or co-authoring several major contracts and commercial law works, he served as Associate Dean from 1990-1997.

Hillman chaired the planning committee of two AALS contracts conferences (1989 and 2005) and one AALS workshop on International Business Transactions (1999).

An arbitrator, consultant on commercial litigation, and the Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Software Contracts, Professor Hillman teaches contracts, commercial law, and the law of e-commerce. He also teaches a class on the nature, functions, and limits of law for Cornell University’s Government Department.

When asked how receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award felt, Hillman responded, “I feel incredibly lucky to teach and write about the world’s greatest subject (contracts, of course) and to have spent a major part of my career at Cornell Law School. Some recognition is icing on the cake!”

Previous winners of the International Conference on Contracts Lifetime Achievement Award include Robert Summers, fellow professor and friend to Robert Hillman. Retiring in 2010, Summers devoted 42 years to Cornell Law School. Sadly, Summers passed away earlier this year.