Catharine Wells passed away on March 7, 2022. She was a Professor of Law and Law School Fund Research Scholar at 麻豆社区 College Law School, where she taught and wrote in various areas of legal theory, including Pragmatic Legal Theory, Feminist Jurisprudence and Civil Rights Theory. In addition, she taught a class in American philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences. She was a nationally recognized expert on Pragmatism and its relationship to American legal theory. Prof. Wells taught at a number of law schools including those at the University of Southern California, Stanford University, the University of Arizona and the University of Utah. Her law review articles were published in many journals including the听Harvard Law Review, the听Michigan Law Review,听University of Southern California Law Review, and the听Northwestern Law Journal.
Professor Wells also held many positions of leadership within the academic community. In addition to serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at BC Law, she served as chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Torts and Compensation Systems, and the Section on Teaching Methods. She organized numerous symposia, including one on Neo-Pragmatism in American Law, which was published in the USC Law Review. She had also been elected to membership in the American Law Institute. Her most recent work was on a book about Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and the pragmatic tradition in American law.
Prior to entering law teaching, Prof. Wells served as an Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Division of Public Charities for the state of Massachusetts. In the area of charities law, she had a national reputation based upon her service as past President of the National Association of State Charities Officials, as an advisor to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service with respect to Non-Profit Organizations; and as a participant in many panels and symposia on non-profit law.
Professor Wells received her law degree听Magna Cum Laude听from Harvard Law School. She also earned an MA and PhD in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation was titled听Peirce on Logic: the Phenomenological Bases of Normative Science. Her undergraduate degree was received from Wellesley College.
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