Thomas C. Galligan Jr. is a law professor at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center. He holds the Dodson and Hooks Endowed Chair in Maritime Law and the James Huntington and Patricia Kleinpeter Odom Professorship of Law. He teaches and writes about Torts and Admiralty. From Jan. 1, 2020, to July 5, 2021, Galligan as LSU President (he was initially named Interim President but the Board of Supervisors later retroactively removed the interim title). As President, Galligan served as both the chief executive of LSU’s eight campuses and leader of the university’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge. He now holds the rank of President Emeritus.

From 2016 to 2019, Galligan served as Dean of the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center. From 2010 to 2016, Galligan served as the President of Colby-Sawyer College, a private liberal arts based college in New London, New Hampshire. Galligan also held a faculty position and regularly taught at Colby-Sawyer College, and he holds the rank of Emeritus Professor.

Prior to leading Colby-Sawyer, Galligan served as Dean of the University of Tennessee College of Law from 1998 to 2010. He started his academic career at LSU in 1986 as a Professor of Law. During his first tenure at the university, students named him the Outstanding LSU Professor six times. From 1995 to 1998, he also served as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Judicial College.

Galligan is a member of the Council of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. Previously, he served as a member (2007-2015) and as chair of the American Bar Association Accreditation Committee (2013-2015). He has been a member of and chaired several site evaluation teams for the ABA and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Galligan is a frequent continuing legal education speaker on his areas of expertise, having given more than 250 speeches and presentations to judges, lawyers, and others on subjects including Torts, Admiralty, Complex Litigation, Professionalism, and more. In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, he testified three times before congressional committees considering amendments to the Death on the High Seas Act and other applicable maritime statutes.

His scholarship has been cited by numerous courts including the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, various United States District Courts, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and various State Appellate Courts.

He holds an A.B. in Political Science from Stanford University, a J.D. from Seattle University School of Law, where he graduated summa cum laude and first in his class, and an LL.M. from the Columbia University Law School.

Galligan resides in Baton Rouge with his wife, Susan.