Thomas D. Rowe Jr., a distinguished scholar of civil procedure, federal courts, complex litigation, and judicial remedies, died on July 11, 2026, at his home in Marina del Rey, California. He was 83. Rowe was a longtime member of the ALI, elected to ALI membership in 1977.
For more than three decades, Rowe was a member of the Duke Law School faculty, which he joined in 1975. He served as associate dean from 1981 to 1984 and senior associate dean in 1995-1996.He also taught at Georgetown, Michigan, Virginia, UCLA, and Pepperdine as well as, served with the U.S. Department of Justice and as a visiting scholar at the RAND Corporation's Institute for Civil Justice.
Rowe was a prolific and influential scholar whose work explored some of the most important questions surrounding the operation of the civil justice system. He wrote extensively on civil procedure, complex litigation, federal jurisdiction, class actions, judicial remedies, and constitutional law. He was a longtime co-author of Civil Procedure, now in its sixth edition, as well as books on federal courts and constitutional theory. His scholarship combined close attention to legal doctrine with a sustained interest in how procedural rules affect litigants, courts, and the administration of justice.
During his nearly five decades as an ALI member, Rowe contributed his expertise to the Institute's work on the civil justice system. Among those contributions, he authored the background paper for ALI's study Paths to a "Better Way": Litigation, Alternatives, and Accommodation, examining litigation and alternative approaches to resolving disputes and the broader institutional and policy questions surrounding the administration of civil justice.
His interest in improving the operation of the courts extended beyond his scholarship and work with ALI. Rowe contributed to the federal civil-rulemaking process, and much of his scholarship examined opportunities for reform in areas including jurisdiction, discovery, class actions, settlement, and attorneys' fees.
A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rowe graduated from Yale University in 1964, tied for first in his class. He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, earning an M.Phil. in 1967, and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1970. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Justice Potter Stewart of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Rowe is survived by his wife, Susan F. French, an ALI member and distinguished scholar of property law. French served as a Reporter for the Restatement Third, Property (Servitudes) and continues her involvement with the Institute as a Consultant on the Restatement Fourth, Property.
Over a career spanning more than five decades, Rowe made important contributions to legal scholarship, legal education, and the administration of justice. ALI remembers him with gratitude for nearly 50 years of membership and service to the Institute and extends its condolences to Susan and to his family, friends, colleagues, and former students.