Aaron Twerski


Aaron D. Twerski is an American lawyer and professor. He is the Irwin and Jill Cohen Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, as well as a former Dean and professor of tort law at Hofstra University School of Law.

Early and personal life

He is a scion of the Chernobyl, Chabad, Sanz, and Bobov Hasidic dynasties. He and his twin brother Rabbi Michel Twerski were the youngest sons of Rabbi Jacob Israel Twerski and Rebbetzin Dvorah Leah Twerski. He was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his father was the rabbi of Congregation Beth Jehudah. Aaron Twerski is the younger brother of Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, a psychiatrist and author of 55 books on Judaism and self-image. His twin brother is now the rabbi of Congregation Beth Jehudah.
He has been married to Kreindel Twerski since 1960. They live in Brooklyn, New York.

Education

Twerski has an A.B. in Talmudic Law from Beth Medrash Elyon Talmudic Research Institute, and attended Ner Israel Rabbinical College. He received his Bachelor of Science in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he was a member of the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor fraternity. He holds a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Marquette University Law School, where he was the student editor of the Marquette Law Review. He received the Marquette Law School Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

Career

He was a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division - Honors Program, 1965-66, and a teaching fellow at Harvard Law School from 1966–67. Twerski has been a visiting professor at Cornell Law School, Boston University, and the University of Michigan.
He has been a professor since 1986 at Brooklyn Law School, where he is the Irwin and Jill Cohen Professor of Law of Law and teaches conflict of laws, product liability, and torts. He served as Dean of Hofstra University School of Law beginning in 2005. In 2017 he left Hofstra Law School and returned to Brooklyn Law School.
He is the author of six books and more than 80 articles in scholarly journals about torts, products liability, and conflict of laws. He is a prolific scholar who served as co-reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Torts Third: Products Liability, receiving the prestigious designation of "R. Ammi Cutter Reporter" for his outstanding performance.
He received the William L. Prosser Award from the Association of American Law Schools. He also received the Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award from the American Bar Association's Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section.
He was appointed by federal judge Alvin Hellerstein as one of two Special Masters to handle cases filed by workers who suffered respiratory illnesses as a result of cleaning up the World Trade Center site after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.