Robert G. Spector

B.S., University of Wisconsin, 1963

J.D., University of Wisconsin, 1966

About

Robert G. Spector is the Glenn R. Watson Chair and Centennial Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.  He taught courses on Family Law, Children and the Law, Conflict of Laws, Evidence, and Child Abuse and Neglect.  He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1966.  

Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma faculty in 1980, Professor Spector was a member of the faculty of Loyola University of Chicago Law School for thirteen years. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois, the University of North Carolina, and Suffolk University in Boston.

Professor Spector was a member of the Governing Council of the American Bar Association’s Family Law Section for ten years. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and served as the Reporter for the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act and the Family Law Joint Editorial Board for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. He was an Expert member of the United States’ Delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Sessions on negotiating a multilateral agreement for the recognition and enforcement of support obligations. He was the Deputy Head of the United States’ Delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Special and Diplomatic Commissions on the Protection of Incapacitated Adults and served as an Expert Member of the United States’ Delegation to the Hague Conference Special and Diplomatic Commissions for the Convention on the Protection of Minors, the Special Sessions on the Maintenance Convention, the Special Session on the Working of the Abduction Convention and the Special Session on the Working of the Maintenance Conventions.

Professor Spector serves as a consultant to the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Family Law Section and writes and lectures extensively on family law topics. He is the author of Oklahoma Family Law: Cases and Materials; Oklahoma Family Law: The Handbook and Oklahoma Family Law: Statutes and Rules Annotated, all published by Imprimatur Press and over 150 articles on family law. He also served as the Associate Editor of the ABA Family Law Quarterly.

In 2021, the Oklahoma Bar Association Family Law Section presented Professor Spector with the “Robert G. Spector Award for Influence and Transformative Work in Family Law.” This lifetime achievement award was created especially to honor Professor’s Spector’s work in the area of family law. He also received the Chair’s Award from the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Family Law Section in 1997 and 2022 for significant contributions to the development of family law and in 1990 was named the Outstanding Family Law Attorney. He is the only person to receive the Earl Sneed Award for significant contributions to Continuing Legal Education by the Oklahoma Bar Association twice, in 1991 and 2023, as well as the Golden Quill Award in 2011 for the best article submitted to the Oklahoma Bar Journal.