Professor of Law
B.A., Brigham Young University
J.D., Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School
Areas of Expertise
- Business Associations
- Contracts
- Jurisprudence
- Legal History
Office: 707T
Val D Ricks joined the South Texas College of Law Houston faculty in 1996. He was the Charles Weigel II Research Professor for 2015-19 and the Vinson & Elkins Research Professor for 2005-09. He teaches Contracts, Corporations, Agency & Partnership, and Antitrust. Professor Ricks has visited at Texas Tech (where he taught Mergers & Acquisitions) and BYU. His scholarly interests include contract law history and theory, business associations law, and jurisprudence, and his writings have appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, University of Kansas Law Review, Baylor Law Review, Florida State University Law Review, Texas A&M Law Review, and South Texas Law Review. He is author of a contracts casebook published through CALI.
Prior to joining the South Texas College of Law Houston faculty, Professor Ricks was an associate at Kirton & McConkie in Salt Lake City, where he specialized in transactional and corporate law and appellate litigation. He was also a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Charles Wiggins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Ricks earned his law degree at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, where he graduated summa cum laude, was inducted into the Order of the Coif, and served as an Executive Editor of the BYU Law Review. He earned his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude, also from BYU. He and his bride are the parents of seven beautiful children.
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ARTICLES
Post § 90: Promissory Estoppel in the Courts that Use It Most, 55 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 599 (2023).
Misreading Menetti: The Case Does Not Help You Avoid Liability for Your Own Fraud, 53 St. Mary’s L.J. 205 (2022).
Fraud Is Now Legal in Texas (for Some People), 8 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 1 (2020).
Introduction, The Best and Worst of Contracts Decisions: An Anthology, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 887 (2018).
The Democratization of Contract Law: The Case of Mutual Promises, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 947 (2018), in The Best and Worst of Contracts Decisions: An Anthology, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 887-1020.
Kirksey v Kirksey, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 965 (2018) (with Charles Calleros), in The Best and Worst of Contracts Decisions: An Anthology, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 887-1020.
Pillans and Rose v. Van Mierop and Hopkins: The Worst Way To Win, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 1016 (2018), in The Best and Worst of Contracts Decisions: An Anthology, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 887-1020.
Authenticating Resolutions of Agency Authority in Large Transactions: Justifying Doubt Suppression, 37 Corp. Couns. Rev. 257 (2018).
Strategic Shareholder and Member Voting Agreements Under Texas Business Entity Law, 68 Baylor L.Rev. 334 (2016).
The Twisted Veil of Texas LLCs, 46 Tex. J. Bus. L. 67 (2014).
Self-Help in the Break-up of Informal Partnerships, 12 DePaul Bus. & Com. L.J. 259 (2014).
Consideration and the Formation Defenses, 62 U. Kan. L. Rev. 315 (2013).
No Power to Be Disloyal (Or, How Not to Write a Loyalty Opinion), 6 J. Bus. Entrepreneurship & L. 247 (2013).
Assent Is Not an Element of Contract Formation, 61 U. Kan. L. Rev. 591 (2013).
Texas Partners Owe Transferees Good Faith: Escaping from the Box, 31 Corp. Counsel Rev. 119 (2012) (with David Bledsoe and Ryan Russo).
Three Suggestions for the Texas Limited Liability Company Law, 44 Tex. J. Bus. L. 29 (2011).
Service Partner Capital Agreements: The Leading Cases and a Response to Critics, 12 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 1 (2009).
The Possibility of Plain Meaning: Wittgenstein and the Contract Precedents, 56 Clev. St. L. Rev. 767 (2008).
Texas’ So-Called “Interested Director” Statute, 50 S. Tex. L. Rev. 129 (2008).
The Revival of De Facto Incorporation in Texas, 25 Corp. Couns. Rev. 75 (2006).
“Dear Sister Antillico…”: The Story of Kirksey v. Kirksey, 94 Geo. L.J. 321 (2006) (with William R. Casto).
Marriage and the Constitutional Right to Free Sex: the State Marriage Amendments as Response, 7 Fla. Coastal L. Rev. 271 (2005) (by invitation).
Teaching Consideration from Original Leading Cases, in Teaching the Law School Curriculum (Steve Friedland & Gerald F. Hess, eds.) (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2004).
The Death of Offers, 79 Ind. L.J. 667 (2004).
Religious Doctrine and the Principles of Revelation, 1 U. St. Thomas L.J. 405 (2003) (by invitation).
Contract Law and Christian Conscience, 2003 BYU L. Rev. 993.
Abortion and Latter-day Saint Experiences with Children and Law, 1 Margins 523 (2001).
The Sophisticated Doctrine of Consideration, 9 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 99 (2000).
In Defense of Mutuality of Obligations: Why “Both Should Be Bound, or Neither,” 78 Neb. L. Rev. 491 (1999).
American Mutual Mistake: Half-Civilian Mongrel, Consideration Reincarnate, 58 La. L. Rev. 663 (1998).
Seeing the Diagonal Clearly: Telling Vertical from Horizontal in Antitrust Law, 28 U. Tol. L. Rev. 151 (1997) (with R. Chet Loftis).
To God God’s, to Caesar Caesar’s and to Both the Defining of Religion, 26 Creighton L. Rev. 1053 (1993).
Knight v. State ex rel. Moore: How Bingo Won the Mississippi Lottery, 61 UMKC L. Rev. 463 (1993).
The Conversion of Intangible Property: Bursting the Ancient Trover Bottle with New Wine, 1991 BYU L. Rev. 1681.
BOOKS
The Story of Contract Law: Formation (CALI eLangdell Press, 2016; 4th ed. 2021).
Teacher’s Manual for the Story of Contract Law: Formation (CALI eLangdell Press, 2016; 4th ed. 2021).
The Story of Contract Law: Implementing the Bargain (CALI eLangdell Press, 2017).
Teacher’s Manual for the Story of Contract Law: Implementing the Bargain (CALI eLangdell Press, 2017).
CHAPTERS
Christianity, Freedom, and the Doctrine of Consideration, in Christianity and Private Law (Robert F. Cochran, Jr. and Michael Moreland, eds.) (Routledge Press, 2021).
REPRESENTATIVE PRESENTATIONS & PROCEEDINGS
Government by Chicken Bones, Precedent in Tea Leaves, at the Festschrift of William R. Casto’s Scholarship, March 24, 2023, hosted by Texas Tech University School of Law.
Promissory Estoppel in the Courts that Use It Most (or, PE Post Section 90), at the 16th International Contracts Conference, February 18, 2023, at Texas A&M School of Law, Fort Worth.
Fraud Is Now Legal in Texas (for Some People), at the 43rd Annual Corporate Counsel Institute, April 28-30, 2021, presented by The University of Texas School of Law and The Corporate Counsel Section of the State Bar of Texas.
Contract Doctrine as Contract Theory, 11th International Contracts Conference, St. Mary’s University School of Law, San Antonio, TX, February, 2016.
Beyond Contract Metaphysics , 8th International Contracts Conference, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, Fort Worth, TX, February, 2013.
Consideration and the Formation Defenses , 7th International Contracts Conference, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA, March 2012.
The Superfluity of Assent as a Separate Element of Contract Formation , Spring Conference on Contracts, University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ William S. Boyd School of Law, February 2010.
Salvific Freedom: A Latter-day Saint Jurisprudence , Religious Legal Theory: The State of the Field, Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, November 2009.
Fiduciary Duty & Executive Compensation , 29th Annual Corporate Counsel Institute, Houston & Dallas, April & May 2007.
Syndicate Short Covering: A Transaction Cost? , Third Annual International Conference on Contracts, South Texas College of Law Houston, Houston, February 2007.
Would You Marry this Man?: Soper’s Estate and Extrinsic Evidence , Second Annual International Conference on Contracts, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, Fort Worth, February 2006.
Marriage and the Constitutional Right to Sex , Symposium on State Marriage Amendments: Efforts to Protect Conjugal Marriage, Efforts to Legalize Same-Sex Unions, Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, April 2005.
Clinical Study Agreements: The Contract Lawyer’s Perspective , Clinical Research Workshop: The Integrity of Clinical Research in Liver Disease: Protecting Patients and Investigators, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, New Orleans, May 2004.
Doctrine and the Principles of Revelation , Symposium: God, the Person, History & the Law: Themes from the Work of Judge John T. Noonan, Jr., St. Thomas University, School of Law, 2003.
Response: Contract Law and Conscience , Latter-day Saint Perspectives on Law Symposium, October 2001, at Brigham Young University.
Abortion and Latter-day Saint Experiences with Children , MARGINS Symposium, Legislating Morality: The Problem of Moral Right and Legal Rights, March 2001, at Univ. of Maryland School of Law.
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