Paul Bruton was one of two novice faculty that Dean Justin Miller hired in 1932, the other being Warner Fuller. University President William Few was aware that the new university could not escape the impending effects of the economic depression, and it would not be possible to continue to offer generous salaries to secure more experienced faculty. Bruton had just completed his A.B. and LL.B. at the University of California in 1929 and his J.S.D. at Yale the following year. His first teaching position was as an instructor in the law school at Yale from 1930 to 1932.
Bruton left Duke in 1935 for a position with the IRS, but in 1937 returned to teaching at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school. From 1948 to 1949 he was acting dean, and in 1969 he was named the Algernon Sydney Biddle Professor of Law. Bruton assumed emeritus status in 1974, and died in 1988.
Sources:
AALS Directory of Law Teachers 190 (1983-84)
Duke University, School of Law, Bulletin of Duke University School of Law [serial]
Robert F. Durden, The launching of Duke University, 1924-1949 (1993)
- Conflict of Laws
- Securities
- Creditor’s Rights
- Seminar in Securities and Creditor’s Rights
- Bills and Notes
- Chattel Transactions
- Security Transactions
- Credit Finance Seminar
Articles & Essays
- Book Review, 44 Yale Law Journal 375-378 () (reviewing Edward S. Stimson, Jurisdiction and Power of Taxation (1933))
- Cotton Acreage Reduction and the Tenant Farmer, 1 Law and Contemporary Problems 275-291 ()
