Daniel R. Tilly

Professor Tilly joined the Baylor Law faculty in the Fall of 2024. He teaches Practice Court III within the law school’s storied Practice Court program. 

A committed educator, Professor Tilly enjoys harmonizing legal doctrine with experiential education. He balances his teaching between classroom lectures on civil procedure and evidence with courtroom advocacy training. Professor Tilly’s approach has been rewarded by students and administrators through professor of the year recognitions and awards for teaching excellence.  

Professor Tilly’s scholarly research focuses on evidence, with an emphasis on the deleterious impact of character evidence on victims of violent crime. He is a frequent speaker on state and federal evidence issues at national and regional conferences. The UNC School of Government invited him annually to teach foundational evidence at its conference of newly appointed district judges. He now lectures on Texas evidence issues at the Texas Access to Justice Commission’s Pretrial Academy and within state legal education conferences.   

Prior to joining the Baylor Law faculty, Professor Tilly led the advocacy program at Campbell Law School in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he served as an Associate Professor and, later, Associate Dean. He is credited with leading that law school into the national rankings in advocacy and experiential education, with over a dozen national titles and a world championship in a variety of advocacy competitions. 

Throughout his career, Professor Tilly has played an active role in shaping public policy. Most recently, he was appointed by the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court to three-year terms on the North Carolina Rules Advisory Commission and the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism. He now works with regional and state officials to effectuate improvements within Texas law. 

Professor Tilly graduated with honors from Baylor University School of Law. During law school, he served as a Senior Executive Editor of the Baylor Law Review and Managing Editor of its Texas Practice Edition. Professor Tilly competed at the National Tournament of Champions and National Trial Competition under the training of Professor Gerald Powell. He was a recipient of the American Board of Trial Advocates Award, Funderburk Evidence Award, Professor Matthew Cordon Excellence in Legal Research Award, Professor George Durham Brown Endowed Memorial Award, and the Patton, Halton, Roberts, McWilliams & Greer Law Review Award.  

Professor Tilly worked as a civil litigator and trial lawyer in Waco, Texas, for six years before transitioning into full-time academia in 2011. He maintains an active Texas law license and routinely advises on evidence and trial strategy. 
 

Dan and his wife Angela met at UT-Austin and have been married since graduating. They have three sons and two golden retrievers. 

Publications

• Victims Under Attack: North Carolina’s Flawed Rule 609, 97 N.C. L. REV. 1553 (2019)(selected as lead article)  
• Adopted Statements in the Digital Age: Hearsay Responses to Social Media “Likes,” 93 N.D. L. REV. 277 (2018)
• North Carolina’s Reincarnated Joint Tenancy: Oh Intent Where Art Thou? 93 N.C. L. REV. 1649 (2015)
• Confidentiality of Adoption Records in Texas: A Good Case for Defining Good Cause, 57 BAYLOR L. REV. 531 (2005)
   

Courses Taught

Practice Court III, Evidence, Products Liability, Trial Advocacy