The Catholic University of America, Retired William Kaplin received his A.B. degree in political science from the University of Rochester and his J.D. degree with distinction from Cornell University where he was editor-in-chief of the Cornell Law Review.
He then worked with a Washington, D.C., law firm, served as a judicial clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and was an attorney in the education division of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, after which he joined
the law faculty at The Catholic University of America where he taught courses in Education Law, Constitutional Law, and Civil Rights for almost 40 years.
Professor Kaplin has been a visiting professor at Cornell Law School and at Wake Forest University School of Law; distinguished professorial lecturer at Stetson University College of Law; a distinguished visiting scholar at the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance, University of Houston; and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Educational Leadership, George
Washington University. He is a former member of the Education Appeal Board, U.S. Department of Education; the former editor of the Journal of College and University Law; a member of the U.S./U.K. Higher Education Law Roundtable; and a mentor/leader for the biannual Higher Education Law Roundtable at the University of Houston Law Center. He also served for many years as Special Counsel to the Office of General Counsel at Catholic University.
Professor Kaplin received the American Council on Education’s Borden Award, recognizing his authorship of The Law of Higher Education (1st ed. 1978). He was selected as a Fellow of the National Association of College and University Attorneys in 1990. He has also been honored through the establishment, by Stetson University College of Law, of the William A. Kaplin
Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy Scholarship, a national award presented annually to a leading scholar in the fi eld. Professor Kaplin’s book, The Law of Higher Education, is now in a 2-volume fi fth edition (John Wiley & Sons, 2013), co-authored by Barbara Lee of Rutgers University. Among his other publications is Constitutional Law: An
Overview, Analysis, and Integration (Carolina Academic Press 2004).
NACUA is pleased to recognize William A. Kaplin as a Life Member of the Association in recognition of his outstanding service and his sustained and substantial contributions to NACUA and the field of higher education law.