Thomas E. Kauper, ’60, who served on the Michigan Law faculty for decades and was a prominent practitioner and scholar of domestic and international antitrust law, died on February 9, 2025. He was 89.
Kauper graduated from Ann Arbor High School in 1953 and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts in 1957. He was a four-year member of the Michigan Marching Band. While a student at the Law School, he was editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review, a member of the Order of the Coif, and the recipient of the Henry M. Bates Award, considered the highest student award at Michigan Law.
After graduating law school, he clerked for US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart for two years. He then spent two years in private practice in Chicago before joining his father, Paul Kauper, ’32, as a member of the Michigan Law faculty in 1964.
From 1969 to 1971, Kauper took a leave of absence from the faculty to serve as the first deputy assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel. Kauper took a second leave when President Nixon nominated him to serve as assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division in 1972, a position he continued to hold under President Ford. He institutionalized the division’s use of economic analysis in its decision making and resurrected its reputation after Watergate. During that time he also filed the antitrust case that led to the breakup of AT&T and played a significant role in airline deregulation. Later, he worked as an antitrust consultant, mediator, and arbitrator for a number of law firms.
John Nannes, ’73, a retired partner in the antitrust practice at Skadden, knew Kauper as a teacher and a mentor: Kauper hired Nannes as his special assistant when he returned to Washington to lead the Antitrust Division. “I was struck by how comprehensively he had presented the course materials. It was like having a personalized treatise…so much so that I have kept those notes for 54 years,” said Nannes in his eulogy of Kauper at a memorial service in May. When I had the chance to observe him in action at the DOJ, I learned important lessons: do your job and see it through to conclusion; be open-minded; and, if you make a mistake, own it and then make it right.”
Kauper co-authored Property: An Introduction to the Concept and the Institution and many articles on antitrust law and the competition policy of the European Union. He served for 14 years as a member of the American Bar Association Council of the Antitrust Section and for a year as its vice chair.
Kauper retired from the Law School in 2008 as the Henry M. Butzel Professor Emeritus of Law. Throughout his career, he was especially active in helping Michigan Law students secure clerkships. He also held visiting professorships at Harvard Law School and the Peking University School of Transnational Law, among others.
He received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career, including the DOJ’s John Sherman Award, the 50th Anniversary Achievement Award from the ABA Antitrust Section, and the Law School’s Distinguished Alumni Award.
He was a lifelong member of Zion Lutheran Church and twice served as its president. He was a trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, a longtime Ann Arbor Rotary Club member, and a director of the University Musical Society. In addition, he was an extremely passionate Michigan football fan who for many years held season tickets in section 22 alongside his wife, Shirley, and a cluster of current and former Law School faculty.
Kauper is survived by his wife, Shirley; two daughters, Karen and Krista; and three grandchildren, Sarah, Megan, and Nathan.
