Bridgeman’s appointment, which will begin in July 2013, was announced by Willamette University President Stephen E. Thorsett. Bridgeman is currently the James and Margaret Elizabeth Hennessey Corry Professor of Law and associate dean for academic affairs at Florida State University College of Law.
After serving for two years in the U.S. Army, Bridgeman attended Vanderbilt University, where he earned both a doctorate in philosophy and his J.D. After earning his law degree, Bridgeman clerked for Judge Gilbert Merritt ’60 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
In 2004, Bridgeman joined the law faculty at Florida State law, where he received the University Graduate Teaching Award in 2009 and where law students selected him three times as “Professor of the Year.” He has served as associate dean for academic affairs at Florida State’s College of Law for two years. Over the course of his career, Bridgeman has been a visiting professor at the University of Illinois and taught at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Vanderbilt University.
A leading scholar in the field of contracts and commercial law, Bridgeman has been an invited speaker at law schools around the globe. He’s addressed the annual meeting of the American Bar Association’s business law section and is on the executive committee of the American Association of Law Schools’ contracts section
“A nationally renowned scholar and accomplished teacher, Dean Bridgeman brings to the deanship a deep understanding of the challenges confronting legal education,” Thorsett said.
“I am honored to be selected to lead Willamette College of Law,” Bridgeman said. “Willamette has a rich, 130-year tradition and an even brighter future.”
Bridgeman is married to Beth King, a pediatrician, and has two grown sons.