Professor Pryor’s scholarly and teaching interests relate to tort law, non-tort compensation programs, liability insurance, and professional responsibility.  She currently serves as Coordinating Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Third) of Torts and is Associate Reporter for Chapter 10 of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm.  She also serves as an Adviser for the ALI’s Principles of the Law of Liability Insurance.
 
Professor Pryor’s writings in the areas of torts, insurance, and compensation theory have appeared in, among other journals, the Harvard Law Review, Journal of Legal Studies, Virginia Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, George Washington Law Review, Maryland Law Review, Texas Law Review, Tulane Law Review, and the University of Chicago Press.  She is a co-author of ADVANCED TORTS (West Publishing Company) (co-authored with G. Christie, J. Meeks, and J. Sanders); and THE LAW OF TORTS (West Publishing Company) (co-authored with George Christie, James Meeks, & Joseph Sanders).
 
From 2007 to 2011, Professor Pryor served as an Associate Provost for SMU.  In Fall 2010, she was the D & L Straus Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University School of Law.
 
In 2006, Professor Pryor received the 20^th annual Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award from the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association.  In 2005, she was named as a Piper Professor by the Minnie Piper Foundation (for college and university teaching in the State of Texas).  She received SMU’s United Methodist Award for Scholar-Teacher of the Year in 2000, and was named one of four inaugural members of SMU’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 2001.

At the University of Texas School of Law, Professor Pryor served as Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Law Review, and received the award for highest grades in the first year courses Torts, Property, Contracts, and Civil Procedure. She was a member of the honor societies Chancellors and Order of the Coif. She received awards for outstanding student, student most likely to contribute to legal scholarship, and best student law review note. Following graduation, she served as judicial clerk for a federal appeals court Judge, the Honorable Carl McGowan of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She then returned to her hometown of Dallas and worked for a civil litigation firm for four years. During that time, she received the Dallas Bar Association's Pro Bono Award of the Year, and the State Bar of Texas' Frank Scurlock Award for Delivery of Legal Services to the Poor.

Primary Articles

PECULIAR RISK IN AMERICAN TORT LAW, 38 Pepperdine L. Rev. 393 (2011)
 
RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF TORTS: COORDINATION AND CONTINUATION, 44 Wake Forest L. Rev. 1383 (2009) (symposium co-sponsored by the American Law Institute and Wake Forest School of Law on the Restatement (Third) of Torts).
 
WHAT CAN WE HOPE FOR FROM LAW?, 36 Pepperdine L. Rev. 547 (2008) (version of the Louis Brandeis Lecture at Pepperdine Law School).
 
PART OF THE WHOLE: TORT LAW’S COMPENSATORY FAILURES THROUGH A WIDER LENS, 27 Rev. of Litigation 308 (2008).

THE ECONOMIC LOSS RULE AND LIABILITY INSURANCE, 48 Ariz. L. Rev. 905 (2006) (published as part of the Symposium, Dan D. Dobbs Conference on Economic Tort Law).

NONECONOMIC DAMAGES, SUFFERING, AND THE ROLE OF THE PLAINTIFF’S LAWYER, 55 DePaul Law Review 563 (2006) (11th Annual Clifford Law Symposium).

THE EFFECT OF BAD FAITH LAWS ON FIRST-PARTY INSURANCE CLAIMS DECISIONS, 33 JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES 355-390, (June 2004) (co-authored with Mark J. Browne and Robert Puelz).

REHABILITATING TORT COMPENSATION, 91 Georgetown Law Journal 659-693 (2003).

AFTER THE JUDGMENT, 88 Virginia Law Review 1757 (2002).

DEFENSE LAWYERS’ PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: PART II: CONTESTED COVERAGE CASES, 15 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 29 (2002) (co-authored with Professor Charles Silver).

DEFENSE LAWYER’S PRPOFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: PART I - EXCESS EXPOSURE CASES, 78 Texas Law Review 599 (2000) (co-authored with Professor Charles Silver).

MAPPING THE SHIFTING BOUNDARIES OF THE DUTY TO DEFEND IN TEXAS, 31 Texas Tech Law Review 869 (2000).

THE TORT LIABILITY REGIME AND THE DUTY TO DEFEND, 42 Maryland Law Review 1 (1999).

CONCURRENT MEDIATION OF LIABILITY AND COVERAGE DISPUTES, 4 Connecticut International Law Journal 485 (1997-1998) (co-authored with Will Pryor).

THE STORIES WE TELL: INTERNATIONAL HARM AND THE QUEST FOR INSURANCE FUNDING, 75 Texas Law Review 1721 (1997).

MENTAL DISABILITY AND THE DISABILITY FABRIC, in Mental Disorder, Work Disability, and the Law (eds. R. Bonnie & J. Monahan) (University of Chicago Press 1996).

COMPARATIVE FAULT AND INSURANCE BAD FAITH, 72 Texas Law Review 1505 (1994).

THE TORT LAW DEBATE, EFFICIENCY, AND THE KINGDOM OF THE ILL, 79 Virginia Law Review 91 (1994).

COMPENSATION AND THE INERADICABLE PROBLEMS OF PAIN, 59 George Washington Law Review 239 (1991).

FLAWED PROMISES: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION’S GUIDES TO THE EVALUATION OF PERMANENT IMPAIRMENT (Book Review), 103 Harvard Law Review 964 (1990).

COMPENSATION AND A CONSEQUENTIAL MODEL OF LOSS, 64 Tulane Law Review 783 (1990).
 

Books

ADVANCED TORTS (West Publishing Company, 2004) (co-authored with G. Christie, J. Meeks, and J. Sanders).

THE LAW OF TORTS (West Publishing Company, 2004) (2004)(co-authored with George Christie, James Meeks, & Joseph Sanders).

Speeches/Presentations

"The Restatement (Third) of Torts and Liability of Those Who Retain Independent Contractors," Second Annual International Forum on Civil Law, Sponsored by the China Civil Law Society, the Civil Law Research Center of Renmin University, the Academy for East Asian Tort Law, Fudan University Law School, and Fudan University Medial Law School; Shanghai, China, 2011

“Peculiar Risk in American Tort Law,” 2010 Pepperdine University Tort Law Conference, Does the World Still Need U.S. Tort Law?
 
“The Restatement (Third) of Torts: Coordination and Continuation,” 2009 Wake Forest Law School Conference on the Third Restatement of Torts
 
“Hungering for Justice: What Can a Lawyer of Faith Hope for and Believe About Law?,” Louis Brandeis Lecture at Pepperdine Law School 2008
 
“Remedies and Compensation,” AALS Annual Conference, Workshop on Remedies, January 2007
 
“A Seminar on Law, Faith, and Morality,” Sixth Conference of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools, Baylor Law School, March 2006
 
“What Does It Mean to Compensate an Injured Person?” AALS Torts and Compensation Section, AALS Annual Meeting, January 2006
 
“Law and Vocation,” AALS Annual Meeting Workshop on Balance in the Whirlwind, January 2006
 
“Coverage Creating Techniques and Mass Tort,” University of Connecticut Law School Symposium on Anatomy of a Mass Tort, October 2005
 
“Non-Economic Damages, Suffering, and the Role of the Plaintiff’s Lawyer,” 11^th Annual Clifford Symposium on Tort Law, April 2000
 
“After the Judgment,” University of Virginia Law School, 2002 Olin Conference
 
“Rehabilitating Tort Compensation,” Georgetown Law Journal Annual Symposium Conference, 2003
 
“New Scholarship in Torts,” Torts Section Meeting at the Annual Conference of the American Association of Law Schools, 2002
 
“Disputed Liability, Disputed Coverage,” Annual Conference of American Association of Law Schools, Joint Section Meeting of Insurance and Torts-Compensation 1999
 
“Mapping the Receding Boundaries of Tort Law,” American Association of Law Schools, Annual Conference, Joint Section Meeting of Torts, Property, and Contracts, 1998
 
“The Duty to Defend,” Symposium on Emerging Issues in Insurance Law, University of Connecticut School of Law 1997
 
“Tort Developments 1986-1996,” American Association of Law Schools, Annual Conference, Mini-Workshop on Developments in Recent Years
                                               
“Teaching Damages in First-Year and Upper-level Torts Classes,” American Association of Law Schools, Conference on Teaching Tort Law, Washington, D.C. 1996

“Schedules in the Second Generation,” Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, Nineteenth Annual National Symposium on Workers' Compensation, 1995

“Mental Disabilities and the Disability Fabric,” Mental Health Network Project Symposium on Work and Disability, Sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1993
 
“Tort Law and Nonpecuniary Damages,” Columbia University Law and Economics Association, 1991