Arizona Pre-Trial Civil Procedure

Gessner Harrison is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, where since 2018 he has taught principles of federal and Virginia civil practice and procedure and evidence. He is also the Senior Staff Attorney in the Office of the Reporter of Decisions for the Supreme Court of Virginia, in which position he has regularly researched and analyzed diverse issues pertaining to federal and Virginia law and appellate practice in connection with the editing and publication of the Court’s opinions since 2003. Since 2011, he has also served as a consultant to the Supreme Court of the United States Virgin Islands, performing similar research, editing, and publication support roles as its Deputy Reporter of Decisions. Prior to these engagements, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Rudolph J. Gerber on the Arizona Court of Appeals, and was an associate at Mohr, Hackett, Pederson, Blakely & Randolph, P.C. in Phoenix, Arizona, where he focused on local government law and civil litigation. He holds both J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Arizona State University, where he was a managing editor of the Arizona State Law Journal, and he graduated cum laude from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, earning a Master of Information Science degree in 2016 with advanced course work in copyright law, as well as legal research and information management. He has authored law review articles on various topics in federal and Arizona law including criminal appellate procedure, constitutional law, crime victim's rights, and environmental law. Mr. Harrison also plays a major role in the model jury instructions program in Virginia, and is responsible for the identification of all new developments in Virginia legislation as well as federal and Virginia case law affecting the model jury instructions appearing in the Virginia Model Jury Instructions volumes, published by Lexis Law Publishing, covering civil and criminal trials in Virginia. Since 2005, he has also collaborated with Professor Kent Sinclair, a distinguished Professor of the University of Virginia School of Law and former federal Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York, on numerous projects, including Virginia Pleading & Practice; The Law of Evidence in Virginia; Virginia Remedies; and 13 published articles in the Lexis Expert Commentaries series. He is also the co-author of the Trial Handbook and the Federal Civil Practice treatises published by Practicing Law Institute, concerning federal evidence and civil procedure.