Mike Hoeflich was born in NYC in 1952 and attended NYC schools until he went to Haverford College (Pa.) in 1969. He obtained a Fulbright to attend Cambridge University (Clare College) in 1973. In 1976 he was elected a research fellow in history at Clare. He obtained an MA and a PhD in Law at Cambridge. He returned to the US in 1976 and received a JD at Yale Law School in 1979. He joined the NYC firm of Cravath, Swaine, and Moore after graduation from Yale. In 1981 he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois School of Law where he served as a professor and university scholar. In 1988 he moved to Syracuse where he served as dean, of the law school, and professor of law and history in the Maxwell School of Public Policy at Syracuse. In 1994 he moved to the University of Kansas where he served a dean of the law school until 2000. He continues to serve as the Kane Distinguished Professor of Law and Courtesy Professor of History and occasionally teaches in the School of Engineering as well. He was awarded the Balfour Jeffrey Prize for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences, the highest academic award given by the state of Kansas in 2021 for his work.
He specializes in legal history, the history of technology as applied to law practice, and legal ethics. He has published extensively in these fields. A select bibliography of his writings may be seen online at https://law.ku.edu/people/michael-hoeflich. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American Antiquarian Society. His is the principal author and editor of the Legal Ethics and Malpractice Reporter ( available online at https://josephhollander.com/ethics/ as well as the principal in the LEMRF quarterly continuing education programs offered quarterly online.