Edward Francis "Ed" Sherman

1937 - 2022

Edward ("Ed") Francis Sherman, the former dean of Tulane Law School, passed away peacefully at his home in Washington, DC on June 7, 2022, at the age of 84. Ed was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1937 to Ray Sherman, the former mayor of El Paso, and Mary Stedmond, whose grandparents were pioneers of the city. Ed was an expert in civil procedure, complex litigation, mediation and military law. In addition to legal scholarship and teaching, he worked pro bono on many civil rights and social justice cases throughout his life. He graduated from El Paso High School in 1955, where he was valedictorian and president of the study body. Ed went on to graduate from Georgetown University in 1959, and then Harvard Law School in 1962, where he met his two greatest loves: the law and his future wife, Alice, to whom he was married for 59 years. In 1965, he was called up to active duty in the U.S. Army. While serving during the Vietnam War, one of his duties was to notify families about the death of their sons in Vietnam. He experienced the profound grief of mothers and fathers as he showed up at their doorstep. In 1967, he joined the faculty at Indiana University as an expert in civil procedure and military law, and worked pro bono for the ACLU and organizations representing former Vietnam War draft resisters. In 1977, he became a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. In Austin, he became a preeminent scholar of complex litigation, while also working on many jail reform and social justice cases. After 19 years on the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law, Sherman joined the Tulane Law School in 1996 as its dean, where he also continued with his legal scholarship. He moved to a place, New Orleans, which he truly loved. He enjoyed traveling each summer with Alice to Europe to teach at Tulane's summer programs. Ed was instrumental in the formation of a summer Tulane mediation program at Humboldt University of Berlin. While in New Orleans, he served as an expert witness and consultant on large multi-party and class action cases, including litigation involving Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. Over the course of his career, he published nearly a dozen books and 100 articles and book chapters, and was the principal drafter of the Texas and Louisiana mediation statutes as well as the Republic of Vietnam's Code of Civil Procedure. In 2012, true to his love of poetry and literature, he endowed funds to create the Dean Edward and Alice Sherman Law and Literature Room in the Tulane law library. He also was very active with the Louisiana State Bar Association and Texas Bar Association. Ed was always reading and could talk about a multitude of topics with interest and passion. He loved conversations and was often the last person to leave a party. He cherished his summers in Maine spent with his wife Alice, family and friends. He is survived by his wife Alice, his sons Ned and Paul, his grandchildren Ted, Nora, Katlia and Lila, and his daughters-in-law Tinzar Sherman and Kelly Sherman. Tulane Law School is planning to hold a memorial for Ed in the fall. His life will be celebrated this summer in Maine with his family.