H. Reese Hansen
H. Reese Hansen was the dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University from from 1990 to 2004 and Associate Dean from 1976 to 1989 serving with then-dean Rex E. Lee and then Bruce C. Hafen. He is the longest serving dean at the law school. He retired in 2012 after 38 years of service to the BYU Law School. Before joining the BYU Law School faculty, Professor Hansen practiced law in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Prior to his retirement, Hansen served as President of the Association of American Law Schools and as a member of the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professionalism. He had previously served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools, as a member of the Utah Judicial Council Ad Hoc Committee on Probate Law and Procedure, Director of the Association of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools, Trustee of Utah Legal Services, Inc., and Trustee of the Law School Admission Council. He made significant contributions as a Commissioner on the Commission on Uniform State Laws and was an ex-officio Commissioner of the Utah Bar.
Internationally, Professor Hansen was a member of the Foreign Law Initiative Law School Advisory Committee and of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee for the Sister Law School Program of the Central and East European Law Initiative of the American Bar Association.
He earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration in 1964 from Utah State University and a juris doctorate in 1972 from the University of Utah College of Law, where he was research editor and note editor of the Utah Law Review and was named to the Order of the Coif. After graduation, he practiced law in Salt Lake City until 1974.
Hansen has authored a casebook, a judicial reference book, and law practice manuals and articles in legal publications.
He is one of five children reared by Howard and Gayle Hansen in the rural community of Newton, in Cache County, Utah. Reese helped his father tend to their large garden and animals. Later, he spent summers working for his father at the Union Pacific Railroad.
He and his wife, Kathryn, are the parents of four sons.
