Professor Morrissey holds both a bachelor’s (Phi Beta Kappa) and a law degree from Georgetown University. After law school he served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Richard Austin in Chicago. He then worked as an attorney in the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. After a period of private practice in Los Angeles, he became a law professor at the University of Tulsa, where he earned the rank of tenured, full professor. He has also served as a visiting professor of law at Pepperdine University, the University of Denver, and Seton Hall University, and as an adjunct professor at Loyola of Los Angeles.
In 1994 he was appointed dean at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, and served in that capacity until 1999. In 2001 he was appointed Dean of Gonzaga School of Law and served in that capacity until 2004. He has published a number of articles in the areas of corporate securities law and jurisprudence.
- How to Stop Mutual Funds from Robbing Retirement Savings, 14 NYU Journal of Law & Bus. ___ (forthcoming 2017)
- Income Equality in Utopia, 48 U. Pac. L. Rev. 79 (2016)
- Managing the Wealth of Nations: What China and America May Have to Teach Each Other About Corporate Governance, 68 S.M.U. L. Rev. 831 (2015)
- The Riddle of Shareholder Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility, 80 Brooklyn L. Rev. 353 (2015)
- Will Allegran Botox the Wrinkles out of Securities Litigation, 41 J. of Sec. Reg. 287 (2013)
- M&A Fiduciary Duties: Delaware’s Murky Jurisprudence, 58 Vill. Law Rev. 121 (2013)
- Executive Compensation and Income Inequality, 4 Wm. & Mary Bus. L. Rev. 1 (2013)
- Will Arbitration End Securities Litigation?, 40 Sec. Reg. L. J. 159 (2012)
- Shareholder Litigation After the Meltdown, 114 W. Va. L. Rev. 531 (2012)
- After the Meltdown, 45 Tulsa Law Review 393 (2010)
- Reining in Wall Street, National Law Journal (2010)
- The Road Not Taken: Rethinking Securities Regulation and the Case for Federal Merit Review, University pf Richmond Law Review (2010)
- Strengthen Investor Rights, the National Law Journal (October 2009)
- The Securities Act at its Diamond Jubilee: Renewing the Case for a Robust Registration Requirement, University of Pennsylvania Business Law Journal (2009)
- The Path of Corporate Law in the 21st Century: Of Options Backdating, Derivative Suits, and the Business Judgment Rule, Oregon Law Review, (2008)
- Tighten Up Regulation, The National Law Journal (October 6, 2008)
- With Senior Fraud Rampant, Should the SEC Liberalize its Rules that Protect Investors?, National Law Journal (2007)
- American Catholics in the Precarious New Gilded Age, America Magazine (2007)
- Saving Legal Education, Vol. 56, Journal of Legal Education (2007)
- Piercing All the Veils, Journal of Corporate Law, University of Iowa School of Law (2007)
- Published an op-ed piece in the National Law Journal on the issue of backdating stock options for CEOs (2006)
- After The Ball is Over: Investor Remedies in the Wake of the Dot.com Crash and Recent Corporate Scandals, republished in the fall edition of the Public Investor Arbitration Bar Association’s Journal (2006)
- Another Look at the Law of Dividends, Volume 54, No. 2 Kansas L. Rev. (2006)
- After the Ball is Over: Investor Remedies in the Wake of the Dot.com Crash and Recent Corporate Scandals, 83 Nebraska Law Review (2005)
- Bringing the Messiah Through Law, Legal Education at the Jesuit Schools, 48 St. Louis U. L. J. (2004)
- Harry Truman and the Joy of Deaning, 35 U. of Toledo L. Rev. 153 (2003)
- SEC Injunctions, 68 Tenn. L. Rev. 427 (2001)
- Reading the Life of a Saint – Sir Thomas More, 40 Cath. Law. 309 (2001)
- A Natural Lawyer Takes a Sympathetic Look at Post-Modernism, 14 J.L. & Rel. 601 (1999-2000)