SCHOOL OF LAW

John J Sampson

William Benjamin Wynne Professor

LLB University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
BBA University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

A leading expert on Texas family law, Jack Sampson also teaches a seminar on the legislative process when the Texas Legislature is in session. One-half of his academic workload is spent teaching the classroom component of the Children's Rights Clinic, which provides attorney ad litem representation for allegedly abused and neglected children in lawsuits filed by Children's Protective Services in Travis County. He is co-author of Sampson & Tindall's Texas Family Code Annotated (West 19th Ed., 2009). He has authored many articles on Family Law, and served as the editor of the State Bar Family Law Section Report from 1976 through 2007(circulation approximately 5,000).

Professor Sampson has been extensively involved in drafting family law legislation in Texas for nearly forty years. Since 1990, he has served as reporter for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in the drafting of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA). UIFSA is one of the very few uniform acts in force in every state and territory, and the only one that is the subject of a congressional mandate. In 1997 he became the reporter for another NCCUSL project, which culminated in promulgation of the Uniform Parentage Act 2000, with amendments in 2002. To date, nine states have adopted the new UPA.

Beginning in May 2003, and culminating in November 2007, Professor Sampson was a member of the U.S. delegation to The Hague Conference for negotiations on a new Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. As a direct result, he again served as reporter for UIFSA (2008) to integrate foreign child support orders into the enforcement process in place in this country.