Stephen K. Urice
Associate Professor of Law

Professor Urice teaches Trusts and Estates, Art Law, Museum Law, and Cultural Heritage Law.  He lectures nationally and internationally on cultural heritage law and policy and has served on the faculty and planning committee of the ALI-ABA course of study Legal Issues in Museum Administration for many years.  He recently co-edited the 5th edition of the standard art law casebook, Merryman, Elsen, and Urice, Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts (Kluwer, 2006) and is co-authoring with anthropologist Dr. Alexander Bauer a new cultural heritage law and policy text. 

Professor Urice earned his B.A. in English (1972) from Tufts University and subsequently a master’s degree in Biblical Archaeology (1975), a Ph. D. in Fine Arts (1981), and a J.D. (1984), all from Harvard University.  He practiced trusts and estates at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York and at Irell & Manella in Los Angeles.  He served as counsel and acting director of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles prior to becoming director of Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum & Library.  In 1998, Professor Urice was appointed to plan and implement The Pew Charitable Trusts’ new cultural policy program, a $50 million, 5-year effort to assist nonprofit cultural organizations participate more fully in the development of cultural policies at local, state, and federal levels.

In 2003, Professor Urice became director of the Project for Cultural Heritage Law & Policy, which seeks to promote the teaching of cultural heritage issues in law schools, schools of public policy, and departments of anthropology, art history, and related fields.  His work was based at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law where he taught on the adjunct facuty.

Professor Urice joined the faculty of the University of Miami School of Law in June, 2006, and in the current academic year will teach Trusts and Estates in both semesters.