Jean Macchiaroli Eggen is Distinguished Professor of Law at Delaware Law School. Professor Eggen specializes in toxic torts, torts, and civil procedure.  After joining the law faculty in 1986, she became one of the first legal academics to create the new discipline of toxic torts and introduce it into the legal curriculum of a law school.



Distinguished Professor Eggen received an A.B. from Connecticut College and an M.A. from Michigan State University, and was a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) at the University of Michigan. She received a J.D., magna cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Syracuse Law Review, held the prestigious Syracuse University Graduate Fellowship, and received awards for published writing. Following law school, she worked as a tort and environmental litigation attorney at the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King in Syracuse, New York. She is admitted to practice in New York. 



Distinguished Professor Eggen teaches in the areas of toxic torts, civil procedure, torts, and science and the law. She writes in the areas of toxic torts, law and medicine, and neuroscience and tort law. Her publications include a book, Toxic Torts in a Nutshell, now in its 5th edition, and numerous articles on topics such as federal preemption, toxic reproductive and genetic hazards, scientific evidence, mass torts, medical device and tobacco litigation, and the potential impact of functional neuroscience on tort doctrine.  Her articles have been cited by the highest courts of numerous states and by a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.



At Delaware Law School, Distinguished Professor Eggen is a member of the Global Environmental and Natural Resources Law Institute and has been a two-time recipient of the Douglas E. Ray Excellence in Faculty Scholarship Award. She writes legal analysis on the health risks and regulatory aspects of nanotechnology at her blog.  She is a member of the Special Committee on Congressional Relations of the ABA Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) and has co-authored a SEER white paper on preemption and the modernization of the Toxic Substances Control Act.  In 2013, she received an ABA award for the “Best Paper” of the SEER 21st Fall Conference.