Yale Law School Mourns the Passing of Professor Jan Deutsch

Yale Law School Professor Emeritus Jan Ginter Deutsch ‘62 died on May 19, 2016. He was 80 years old.

A memorial will take place on Friday, October 21, at 4:30 p.m., the first day of Alumni Weekend 2016.

“Jan was among the most brilliant minds of his generation,” said Dean Robert C. Post ’77. "He will be deeply missed.”

"I've known Jan for 65 years," said former dean Guido Calabresi ’58. "And during all of that time, I have met few people who were kinder, more decent, and none who were abler. He had an amazing mind, which always challenged you, and if you took the time to understand what he was driving at, you were always enriched. I will miss him immensely."

Deutsch was the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. His areas of expertise were corporations and securities regulations. Deutsch taught a range of courses, including applied jurisprudence, law & business, and social science and law. His books include The Law of Corporations: What Corporate Lawyers Do (with J. Bianco) and Selling the People’s Cadillac: The Edsel and Corporate Responsibility.

Professor Deutsch was educated at Yale (B.A., LL.B., and Ph.D. in Political Science) with an M.A. from Cambridge. He was born in Katowice, Poland.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Dempsey.