FACULTY
Faculty Profile
Full-time Faculty
Thomas R. Lee
Rex J. and Maureen E. Rawlinson Professor of Law
Thomas R. Lee was appointed to the Utah Supreme Court by Governor Gary Herbert in July 2010. Before joining the Court, Justice Lee was the Rex & Maureen Rawlinson Professor of Law at the BYU Law School, where he continues to serve on a part-time basis as Distinguished Lecturer in Law. Justice Lee graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School in 1991. After law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court. Justice Lee then joined the law firm now known as Parr, Brown, Gee & Loveless, where he became a shareholder before joining the law faculty at BYU.
During his years as a full-time law professor, Justice Lee maintained a part-time intellectual property litigation practice with Howard, Phillips, & Andersen. He also developed a part-time appellate practice, arguing numerous cases in federal courts throughout the country and in the United States Supreme Court. In 2004–05, Justice Lee served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice.
Additional Information
- Thomas R. Lee and Jesse Egbert, ARTIFICIAL MEANING? (October 01, 2024). Available at SSRN: (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4973483)
- Thomas R. Lee, Lawrence B. Solum, James C. Phillips, and Jesse A. Egbert, Corpus Linguistics and the Original Public Meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment, 73 Duke L.J. Online 159 (2023-2024).
- Kevin Tobia, Jesse Egbert, and Thomas R. Lee, Triangulating Ordinary Meaning, 112 Geo. L.J. Online 23 (2023-2024).
- Thomas R. Lee and Stephen C. Mouritsen, The Corpus and the Critics, 88 U. Chi. L. Rev. 275 (2021).
- Thomas R. Lee and James C. Phillips, Data-Driven Originalism, 167 U. Pa. L. Rev. 261 (2018-2019).
- Thomas R. Lee and Stephen C. Mouritsen, Judging Ordinary Meaning, 127 Yale L. J. 788 (2017-2018).
- James C. Phillips; Daniel M. Ortner, and Thomas R. Lee, Corpus Linguistics & Original Public Meaning: A New Tool to Make Originalism More Empirical, 126 Yale L.J. F. 21 (2016-2017).
- Thomas R. Lee, Judicial Activism, Restraint, & the Rule of Law, 26 Utah B.J. (2d ser.) 12 (2013).
- Thomas R. Lee, Eric D. DeRosia, and Glenn L. Christensen, An Empirical and Consumer Psychology Analysis of Trademark Distinctiveness, 41 Ariz. St. L.J. 1033 (2009).
- Thomas R. Lee, Eric D. DeRosia, and Glenn L. Christensen, Sophistication, Bridging the Gap, and the Likelihood of Confusion: An Empirical and Theoretical Analysis, 98 Trademark Rep. 913 (2008).
- Thomas R. Lee, Glenn L. Christensen, and Eric D. DeRosia, Trademarks, Consumer Psychology, and the Sophisticated Consumer, 57 Emory L.J. 575 (2007-2008).
- Thomas R. Lee, Eldred v. Ashcroft and the (Hypothetical) Copyright Term Extension Act of 2020, 12 Tex. Intell. Prop. L.J. 1 (2003-2004).
- Orrin G. Hatch and Thomas R. Lee, To Promote the Progress of Science: The Copyright Clause and Congress' Power to Extend Copyrights, 16 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 1 (2002-2003).
- Thomas R. Lee, Preliminary Injunctions and the Status Quo, 58 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 109 (2001).
- Thomas R. Lee and Lance S. Lehnhof, The Anastasoff Case and the Judicial Power to Unpublish Opinions, 77 Notre Dame L. Rev. 135 (2001-2002).
- Thomas R. Lee, Stare Decisis in Economic Perspective: An Economic Analysis of the Supreme Court's Doctrine of Precedent, 78 N.C. L. Rev. 643 (1999-2000).
- Thomas R. Lee, In REM Jurisdiction in Cyberspace, 75 Wash. L. Rev. 97 (2000).
- Thomas R. Lee, The Clinton Impeachment and the Constitution: Introduction to the Federalist Society Panel, Impeachment Panel Transcript, 1999 BYU L. Rev. 1079 (1999).
- Thomas R. Lee and Lara J. Wolfson, The Census and the Overseas Population, 2 Election L.J. 343 (2003).
- Thomas R. Lee, Pleading and Proof: The Economics of Legal Burdens, 1997 BYU L. Rev. 1 (1997).