B.A., 1976, College of William and Mary J.D., 1979, Southern Methodist University
Professor Thornburg teaches and writes in the area of civil procedure and alternative dispute resolution. Drawing on her experience with civil rights and commercial litigation, her scholarship focuses on the procedural fairness of the litigation process, especially at the pleadings, discovery, and jury charge stages. She also writes and speaks in the areas of comparative procedure, online dispute resolution, and the intersection of law and culture.
Professor Thornburg's articles have appeared in law reviews at Virginia, U.C. Davis, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin, Duke, Fordham, Oregon, Missouri, Houston, Edinburgh, and SMU. She is the co-author (with Professor Dorsaneo) of a study guide for Civil Procedure and two Texas procedure casebooks, and has contributed chapters to books on civil procedure issues in consumer law, sports law, computer law, and classic civil procedure cases.
She teaches Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Complex Litigation, Texas procedure, Remedies, and an advanced procedure seminar. Thornburg has visited at the law schools at William & Mary, University of Edinburgh, and, most recently, West Virginia University where she held the John T. Copenhaver Visiting Chair.
Reaping What We Sow: Anti-Litigation Rhetoric, Limited Budgets, and Declining Support for Civil Courts, 30 CIVIL JUSTICE QUARTERLY 74 (2011). Saving Civil Justice, 84 TULANE L. REV. 247 (2010) (review essay of Hazel Genn, Judging Civil Justice). The Managerial Judge Goes to Trial, 44 U. RICH. L. REV. 101 (2010).
Law, Facts, and Power, 114 PENN ST. L. REV. PENN STATIM 1 (2010).
The Curious Appellate Judge: Ethical Limits on Independent Research, 28 REV. LIT. 133 (2008).
Judicial Hellholes, Lawsuit Climates and Bad Social Science: Lessons from West Virginia, 110 W.VA. L. REV. - (2008).
Designer Trials, 2006 J. DISPUTE RES. 181 (invited contribution for symposium on Vanishing Trial Project).
Just Say "No Fishing": The Lure of Metaphor, 40 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 1 (2006).
Contracting with Tortfeasors: Mandatory Arbitration Clauses and Personal Injury Claims, 65 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 253-278 (2003) (invited symposium contribution).
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: Lessons from the ICANN Dispute Resolution Process, 7 JOURNAL OF SMALL & EMERGING BUSINESS 191 (2001) (Reprinted in 6 Computer Law & Technology Journal 89 (2001).
Going Private: Technology, Due Process, and Internet Dispute Resolution, 34 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS LAW REVIEW 151 (2000) [Reprinted in part in John Rothchild, Margaret Jane Radin & Gregory M. Silverman, INTERNET COMMERCE: THE EMERGING FRAMEWORK (2001)].
Giving the "Haves" a Little More: Considering the 1998 Discovery Proposals, 52 SMU LAW REVIEW 229 (1999) [a portion of this article is reprinted in Brodin, Subrin, Main & Minow, CIVIL PROCEDURE: DOCTRINE, PRACTICE & CONTEXT (2000)].
Metaphors Matter: How Images on Battle, Sports, and Sex Shape the Adversary System, 10 WIS. WOMEN'S LAW JOURNAL 225 (1995) [a portion of this article is reprinted as a chapter in Davis, Mathewson & Shropshire, SPORTS AND THE LAW: A MODERN ANTHOLOGY (1999)].
The Power and the Process: Instructions and the Civil Jury, 66 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW 1837 (1998).
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: CIVIL PROCEDURE (LexisNexis 2d ed. 2007) (with Dorsaneo).
TEXAS CIVIL PROCEDURE: PRE-TRIAL LITIGATION 2007-2008 (with Dorsaneo, Crump, and Carlson).
TEXAS CIVIL PROCEDURE: TRIAL AND APPELLATE PRACTICE (4th ed. 2001)(and annual supplements) (with Dorsaneo, Crump, and Carlson).
CIVIL PROCEDURE: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (LexisNexis 2003) (with Dorsaneo).
Presenter, Faculty Workshop, WVU College of Law, West Virginia and the Hellholes Project, March 2008.
Presenter, Faculty Workshop, Cornell Law School, Continuity and Change on the Border of Law and Culture, November 2007.
Presenter, Faculty Colloquium, Northeastern University School of Law, Interactions of Law and Popular Culture, October 2007.
Panelist, ABA National Symposium on the American Jury System, 2006.
Speaker, “Comparative Pre-Proof Procedure: An American View,” Law Society of Scotland, 2003.
Visiting Fellow, “ADR and Internet Disputes,” AHRB Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, University of Edinburgh, 2003.
THE STORY OF LASSITER: THE IMPORTANCE OF COUNSEL IN AN ADVERSARY SYSTEM, in Civil Procedure Stories (Kevin Clermont, ed. 2004).
PATHS TO JUSTICE AND PATHS TO JUSTICE SCOTLAND, 7 Edinburgh Law Review 123 (Jan. 2003).
PRIVATIZATION AND POWER: DISPUTE RESOLUTION FOR THE INTERNET, IN CONSUMER’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES (Ricketts & Telford, eds.)(Cambridge University Press 2003) (Ricketts, Stapleton, Telford & Skinnon eds, Cambridge University Press 2002).
DETAILED FACT PLEADING: THE LESSONS OF SCOTTISH CIVIL PROCEDURE, 36 International Lawyer 1185 (2002).
THE TYRANNY OF ACT PLEADINGS: IS TOO MUCH TOO SOON A ROADBLOCK TO JUSTICE?, Issue 296 SCOLAG Law Journal 105 (June 2002) (reprinted in January 2003 Journal of the Law Society of Scotland).
BOOK REVIEW, ADR IN COMMERCIAL DISPUTES, - International Journal of Law & Information Technology 240 (2002).