John S Dzienkowski

John S Dzienkowski

  • Dean John F. Sutton, Jr. Chair in Lawyering and the Legal Process

Faculty Profile: John S Dzienkowski

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Biography

John is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a high honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. While in law school, John served as the editor-in-chief of the Texas Law Review and he received the honors of a member in the UT Chancellors and the Order of the Coif. He served as a judicial law clerk for Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Sneed in 1983-84 and for District of Massachusetts Judge Robert Keeton in 1984-85. John Dzienkowski began his teaching career at Tulane Law School in New Orleans and he joined the Texas faculty in 1988. John was a visiting professor at the George Washington University School of Law in 1992-93 and at Cornell Law School in 1995. In Spring 2002, John visited the University of Florida Levin College of Law as the Hurst Eminent Visiting Scholar, and in Fall 2002, he visited the University of Alabama School of Law as the Francis Hare Visiting Chair in Tort Law.

John Dzienkowski teaches and writes in the areas of professional responsibility of lawyers, real property, international energy transactions, and oil and gas taxation. He has delivered almost one hundred ethics presentations to in-house corporate departments, large and small law firms, state bar continuing legal education programs, and law faculties throughout this country. In 2005, John received the Texas Exes Faculty Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. He is a five-term member of the drafting committee of the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. In 2023, John was the recipient of the Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award from the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law for exemplary contributions in teaching natural resources and related areas of law to countless students, practitioners, and professionals.

In the area of professional responsibility of lawyers, John has authored leading articles on topics relating to conflicts of interest in lawyering: "Positional Conflicts of Interest" (71 Texas Law Review 457), "Lawyers as Intermediaries" (1992 Illinois Law Review 741), "Multidisciplinary Practice of Law" (69 Fordham Law Review 83) (with Bob Peroni), and "Lawyer Equity Investments in Clients" (81 Texas Law Review 405) (with Bob Peroni). He is the editor of the leading statutory supplement on PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: STANDARDS, RULES, AND STATUTES and a co-author of a casebook on PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY (2020) (with Tom Morgan and Mitt Regan). In the area of natural resources, John is a founding co-author of the first commercially produced casebooks on NATURAL RESOURCES TAXATION (1988) and INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS (1993, 2000, 2020). He is also a co-author of a leading treatise on oil and gas law and taxation, OIL AND GAS LAW AND TAXATION (2023). John is also the co-chair of a bi-annual UT Program on Oil and Gas Taxation co-sponsored with the Internal Revenue Service. 

Courses for Spring 2024

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Professional Activities

2024

February 15, 2024

"Artificial Intelligence and Appellate Law" Panel

Austin Bar Association

Judge Dustin Howell, Hong Shi, and John Dzienkowski addressed ethics issues in the use of artificial intelligence in the practice of appellate law.

2023

September 28, 2023

"Unitization in International Upstream Oil and Gas Development" Presentation

Foundation for National Resources and Energy Law International Short Course

Presentation with White and Case partner, Steven Otillar, about mandatory unitization norms in host government agreements and in resolving boundary disputes.

2022

August 14, 2022

"Attorney Use of Social Media During Representation of Clients" Presentation

International Legal Ethics Conference IX at UCLA

This lecture examines lawyer use of social media to advance client interests in different areas of practice and analyzes the ethical issues raised by such lawyer conduct.