Professor Crawford received his B.A. in 1951 and his J.D. in 1955, both from Louisiana State University, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Louisiana Law Review. He joined the New Orleans firm of Chaffe, McCall in 1955 and served as secretary-treasurer of the Louisiana State Bar Association for two terms from 1960 to 1962. He became assistant dean of the LSU Law Center in 1966, Associate Professor in 1969, and Professor in 1971, and was awarded the James J. Bailey Professorship in Law in 1985. He has been director of the Law Institute since 1978. His publications include the translation of the New Code of Civil Procedure in France, Book I (Grivart de Kerstrat & Crawford) in 1978; the special edition of the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure each year since 1983, the revision of the three-volume Formulary as part of West's LSA Civil Procedure, Vols. 10, 11, and 12; and Vol.. 12, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Tort Law, in 2000. He has lectured regularly on the Continuing Legal Education programs of the Law Center since 1971. He was the principal expert witness for the governor's program of Tort Revision in the 1996 legislative session. He also has served as Special Master to the U.S. District Court in Bankruptcy Litigation. He was named by the Louisiana Bar Foundation as Distinguished Professor of 2003.