Kenneth D. Ferguson

Kenneth D. Ferguson
Professor of Law
School of Law

Contact Info
816-235-2386
Contracts I and II, Professional Sports Law, Commercial Transactions (Payment Systems), Sales and Leasing

About

Kenneth D. Ferguson is a Professor of Law at UMKC School of Law. He is recognized nationally for his sports law and bankruptcy law scholarship.  Professor Ferguson’s sports law scholarship has considered application of assumption of risk theory to distinguish liability for injuries to athletes in amateur and professional sports athletes. His sports law scholarship has also focused on whether gender equity under Title IX is being achieved for girls from economically disadvantaged communities, and from urban, rural, and minority communities. His bankruptcy law scholarship has evolved from addressing the intersection of preferential transfers law and payment systems law, to applying linguistic theory to bankruptcy law, and recently to proposing an innovative two-part business in-fact and business in-law analytical process that courts should consider in determining whether a debtor can avoid the reorganization process of Chapter 11 bankruptcy by instead selling their business under Bankruptcy Code § 363.   Ferguson has served as the Chair of the Sports & Law and the Debtors’ & Creditors sections of the American Association of Law Schools. Professor Ferguson has employed his sports law expertise in shaping national athletic policy while serving as a member of the Board of Directors USA Track & Field – the National Governing Body for the United States Olympic Track & Field Program and on various national committees for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Before joining the faculty of UMKC’s Law School, Professor Ferguson was a member of the Corporate and Bankruptcy division of the law firm of Shughart Thomson & Kilroy PC (now Polsinelli).  Before entering the private practice of law, Professor Ferguson served as the Law Clerk for the Honorable Dennis Stewart, Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri.