Courses Offered:

Torts
Health Care Liability and Regulation
Workers' Compensation
Constitutional Litigation

Professional Biographical Information:

Tom Eaton joined the University of Georgia School of Law faculty in 1979 and teaches torts, constitutional litigation, health care regulation and workers' compensation. In 1993, he was named a J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law.

Recent scholarship includes: Constitutional Torts 2007 Supplement (LexisNexis) (with Mike Wells and Sheldon Nahmod), “Rule 68 Offers of Judgment: The Practice and Opinion of Experienced Civil Rights and Employment Discrimination Attorneys” in Federal Rules Decisions (2007) (with Harold S. Lewis, Jr.), “Of Frivolous Litigation and Runaway Juries: A View From the Bench” in the Georgia Law Review (2007) and “Of Offers Not (Frequently) Made and (Rarely) Accepted: The Mystery of Federal Rule 68” in the Mercer Law Review (2006) (with Harold S. Lewis, Jr.). Recently the U.S. Supreme Court in Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, 128 S. Ct. 2605 (2008), cited Eaton's article The Effects of Seeking Punitive Damages on the Processing of Tort Claims.

Eaton has testified before state and federal legislative committees on a variety of subjects, including products liability, medical consent, patients' rights and tort reform. He has served as chair of the Georgia Governor's Workers' Compensation Review Commission. In addition, he served on a state bar committee that issued a report that lead to the enactment of legislation designed to improve the collection of data pertaining to civil and criminal proceedings in Georgia courts. Eaton has also chaired the AALS Section on Civil Rights.  Presently, he is a master in the Joseph Henry Lumpkin American Inn of Court and a member of the State Bar of Texas.

In the spring of 2003, Eaton became the first law professor to be presented with a UGA Creative Research Medal.  This honor was awarded for his systematic and in-depth study of tort litigation with fellow UGA professor Susette Talarico. That same year, he was also presented with the Student Bar Association Faculty Book Award for Excellence in Teaching.  In 2004, he was selected by the graduating class to be an honorary class marshal at commencement.

Eaton works actively with the law school's mock trial program and also shares his expertise with local high school students. In 2000, he was named Outstanding Attorney-Coach by the state bar's high school mock trial committee in recognition of his five years of service with the award-winning Clarke Central High School Mock Trial Team.

Eaton earned his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Texas. He served as a law clerk to Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr., of the U.S. District Court in Richmond, VA, following graduation, then was an associate with the law firm Graves, Dougherty, Hearon, Moody & Garwood in Austin, TX, before joining the UGA faculty.