About Professor Black

Lynda Wray Black is the Bredesen Professor of Law at the University of Memphis School of Law where she teaches Secured Transactions, Sports Law, Remedies, Nonprofit Organizations, and Contracts. Her scholarship covers a wide range of topics including property, sports law, estate planning, and family law. At the University of Memphis, she has received the Outstanding Alumna Award for the College of Arts & Sciences, as well as being twice selected as Professor of the Year by the law school graduating class.

Since 2015, Prof. Black has served as the Faculty Athletics Representative (“FAR”) to the NCAA for the University of Memphis, and she is the President of 1A FAR (the national organization of Division I FARs). In 2023, President Hardgrave appointed Prof. Black to his President’s Council. She has been recognized by the National Football Foundation and by the American for her contributions to collegiate athletics.

Prior to joining the faculty, Prof. Black was in private practice in the Estate Planning Department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City. Later she practiced Estate Planning and Family Law with the Memphis law firm of Black McLaren Jones Ryland & Griffee, where she remains Of Counsel.

Education

J.D., 1989, Yale Law School; B.A., 1986, summa cum laude with honors in Philosophy University of Memphis.

Admitted

New York (1990); Tennessee (1997).

Experience

Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law (2010-present); Of Counsel, Black McLaren Jones Ryland & Griffee (associated with the firm since 1997); Adjunct Professor, Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law (1999-2008); Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York City, 1989-1994.

Teaching Interests

Secured Transactions, Sports Law, Nonprofit Organizations, Contracts, Remedies, Reproductive Rights, Estate Planning, Family Law, Remedies, and Trust Law.

Publications & Presentations

• The Birth of a Parent: Defining Parentage for Lenders of Genetic Material, Nebraska Law Review, Volume 92.4 (2014)

• The Long Arm’s Inappropriate Embrace, St. John’s Law Review, Volume 91.1 (August 2017)

• Chapter 10: Khabbaz v. Comm’r Soc. Sec. Admin., 930 A.2d 1180 (N.H. 2007) in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Trust and Estates Opinions (Deborah S. Gordon, et al, ed. 2020)

• Preserving Procreative Potential with a SmART Prenuptial Agreement, FIU Law Review, Volume 15.2 (2021)
• The Day the Fight Song Died: The Alston Concurrence that Became the Playbook, Memphis Law Review, Volume 53.4 (2023)
• Specialty: How Pets Unleashed a New Classification of Property, Gonzaga Law Review, Volume 58.2 (2023)
• “Legal Threats to Amateurism in College Sports,” 2016 Memphis Bar Association Bench Bar Conference

• “Baby Steps in Surrogacy Law,” 2019 Memphis Bar Association Bench Bar Conference
• “The Revised Playbook of Collegiate Athletics: A View from the Courts and the Court,” 2025 Memphis Bar Association Bench Bar Conference