Professor Rodney J. Uphoff was recently named as the first Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to joining the Missouri faculty, Uphoff taught at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he served as a Professor and Director of Clinical Legal Education. In addition to running a criminal defense clinic at Oklahoma for eleven years, Uphoff also directed a criminal clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School for four years. Before teaching, Uphoff was the Chief Staff Attorney of the Milwaukee Office of the Wisconsin State Public Defender. He also worked for Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown in Milwaukee, concentrating in personal injury and products liability litigation. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Law with honors in 1976 and has a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics.

Uphoff has written numerous articles on criminal defense practice, the delivery of indigent defense services, and ethical issues facing those involved in the criminal justice system. In 1995, Uphoff edited a book for the ABA entitled Ethical Problems Facing the Criminal Defense Lawyer. Governor Frank Keating appointed him in 1995 to the Oklahoma Indigent System Board, which oversees the operation of Oklahoma's public defender program in all counties except for Tulsa and Oklahoma County. He frequently speaks at conferences across the country on criminal trial advocacy and has participated four times as a faculty member at Harvard University's Trial Advocacy Workshop. In 1998, Uphoff served as a Legal Specialist in Romania as part of the American Bar Association's Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI) Program.

Professor Uphoff teaches Trial Practice, Professional Responsibility, Criminal Procedure and Criminal Litigation Skills.

Last updated April 16, 2002