Professor Henning received a J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1976 and an LL.M. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1982. He served on the faculties of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law and the University of Alabama School of Law before moving to Texas A&M in 2015. 

 

In 1994, Professor Henning was appointed to represent Missouri in the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), and he served as the ULC’s Executive Director from 2001 to 2007. Today, as a Life Member of the organization, he is an Emeritus Member of the Permanent Editorial Board for the UCC, a Member of the Committee on the UCC, Co-chair of the Study Committee on Implementation of the Hague Judgments and Choice of Court Agreements Conventions, and a Member of the Drafting Committee on an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors Act. He served as a Member of the Drafting Committee that developed the 2022 Amendments to the UCC, and he currently serves on a committee seeking state enactment of those amendments.

 

Professor Henning is a Member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers (ACCFL), and a Member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. He has served as a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law.

 

Professor Henning is a recipient of The Missouri Bar Foundation’s Spurgeon Smithson Award, recognizing “outstanding contributions to the legal profession by a Member of The Missouri Bar;” the ACCFL’s Homer Kripke Award, recognizing “a career of noteworthy leadership and a history of exceptional dedication to the improvement of commercial finance law and practice;” and the International Conference on Contracts’ Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing “individuals whose careers have been spent in legal academia and who have made major contributions to legal education, contract law scholarship, and the practice of commercial law.”

 

Professor Henning has published widely in the field of commercial law and beyond. He has authored or co-authored numerous books, including Understanding Sales and Leases of Goods (3rd ed.) and Understanding Secured Transactions, 6th ed. (he also co-authored all prior editions of both Understanding books), as well as a chapter on the Model Tribal Secured Transactions Act in Hawkland’s Uniform Commercial Code Series. He has also authored or co-authored numerous law review articles, including Achieving Law Reform Sometimes Requires a Strong Defense, 17 Brook. J. Corp. Fin. & Com. L. 2 (2022); Even Some International Law is Local: Implementation of Treaties through Subnational Mechanisms, 60 Va. J. Int’l L. 1 (2020) (lead article in 60th anniversary edition); A Proposal for a National Tribally Owned Lien Filing System to Support Access to Capital in Indian Country, 18 Wyo. L. Rev. 2 (2018), Article 9 and the Characterization and Treatment of Tenant Security Deposits, 25 U.A.L. Rev. 999 (2013); Freedom of Contract vs. Free Alienability: An Old Struggle Emerges in a New Context, 46 Gonzaga L. Rev. 353 (2011); The Uniform Law Commission and Cooperative Federalism: Implementing Private International Law Conventions through Uniform State Laws, 2 Elon L. Rev. 39 (2011); A Unified Rationale for Section 2-607(3) Notification, 46 S.D.L. Rev. 573 (2009); Amended Article 2: What Went Wrong?, 11 Duq. Bus. L.J. 131 (2009); and Voluntarism in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina: The Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act, 1 AMA Journal of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, No. 1, p. 44 (2007). 

 

Professor Henning has also made numerous presentations, UCC Basics (Texas Bar Association CLE 2024); 2022 UCC Amendment Enactment Update and Choice-Of-Law Issues (American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers 2024); The New UCC Article 12 (Texas Bar Association CLE 2023); Private International Law in a Federalist System (14thTransnational Commercial Law Teachers Meeting 2023); The 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code (Texas Bankers Association Annual Legal Conference 2023); Digital Assets in Commerce (Arkansas Bar Association Annual Meeting (July 2023); Current Developments in Private International Law – Mediated Settlements and Judgments (16thInternational Contracts Convention 2023); Amending the UCC to Cover Digital Assets (Dallas Bar Association 2022); Crypto World: Bitcoin and Blockchain - The New Way or Passing Fad (Finance & Tribal Economies Conference sponsored by the Native American Finance Officers Association 2021); How Young Lawyers Can Become Involved in Law Reform (Gonzaga Law School Faculty Speaker Series 2019); and The Importance to the Cherokee Nation of the Model Tribal Secured Transactions Act (Cherokee Nation Law Day 2017).