Thomas C. Britton
Associate Professor of Law and Director of Graduate Legal Studies

Biography

Professor Britton teaches courses in the area of public law, including administrative law, legislative and administrative process, state and local government law, and education law. He also teaches negotiation. 

As Director of Graduate Legal Studies, Professor Britton oversees the two non-JD graduate programs of the School of Law. The Master of Legal Studies (MLS) program is intended for mid-career individuals who seek greater knowledge of and understanding about the law and American legal systems, but who do not wish to become lawyers themselves. The Master of Laws (LLM) program is an advanced study of the law by those who have already earned the first degree in law. Professor Britton teaches one of the required introductory courses for foreign educated lawyers and for students new to the MLS program. 

Professor Britton is a member of the Charter Class of the School of Law, the Class of 1976. He maintained his association with the School of Law while he pursued a lengthy and successful career in University central administration. Professor Britton served as an advisor to four of the six Presidents of Southern Illinois University who have served since the mid-1970s, and was named to his first Vice Chancellor/Vice President post at age thirty-six. During his seventeen years in University administration, he served as Administrative Counsel to the SIU Board of Trustees, Executive Assistant (chief of staff) to President Kenneth Shaw, Vice Chancellor/President for Administration for Chancellor Lawrence Pettit and President James Brown, and Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement for Chancellor Donald Beggs and President Ted Sanders.  

He joined the law school on a full-time basis in early 1992 as associate dean. He was the first SIU Law graduate to hold that post and also the first to serve as Acting Dean (1995-96). 

Professor Britton retired from administration in early 2001 and now devotes his energies full-time to his faculty responsibilities. Since making this change, he has developed three new courses and was the driving force in the creation of two of the new graduate programs described above. He has served as a senior consultant to the Illinois State Board of Education, training administrative law judges to hear cases in the area of special education. He has also written several articles and a two-volume handbook for administrative law judges.