Patrick J. Borchers (born 1961) is a lawyer, university administrator and politician from the state of

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

. He is a member of the faculty of the

Creighton University School of Law Creighton University School of Law, located in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, is a component of the Jesuit Creighton University. According to Creighton's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 75% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-t ...

in the city of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

. In 2016, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Nebraska legislature. Borchers is a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

Life and career

Borchers was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He graduated from Boulder High School in Boulder Colorado in 1979. He received a B.S. in physics with Honors from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

in 1983. He is a 1986 graduate of the

University of California, Davis School of Law The University of California, Davis School of Law (Martin Luther King Jr. Hall), referred to as UC Davis School of Law and commonly known as King Hall, is the professional graduate law school of the University of California, Davis. The school rece ...

where he was elected to the

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...

. He was a law clerk to

Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Presid ...

from 1986 to 1987 when Kennedy was a judge on the

U.S. Court of Appeals The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fro ...

for the Ninth Circuit. Kennedy was later elevated to the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. Borchers practiced law in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, California. In ''Board of Supervisors v. Local Agency Formation Com.'', 3 Cal. 4th 903 (1992), he successfully represented before the California Supreme Court a citizens group attempting to form the new city of

Citrus Heights Citrus Heights is a city in Sacramento County, California. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 87,583, up from 83,301 at the 2010 U.S. Census. History Citrus Heights voters approved the measure to incorporate the City on Nov ...

, California, arguing that it did not violate the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

to restrict voting to those within the proposed city's boundaries.

Academic career

After starting his academic career at

Albany Law School Albany Law School is a private law school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1851 and is the oldest independent law school in the nation. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and has an affiliation agreement with University at A ...

, he was appointed in 1999 Dean of

, serving until 2007. While in that position, he founded the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. In 2007, Borchers was appointed Vice President for Academic Affairs at Creighton, the Chief Academic Officer of the university. He stepped down in 2013 and was appointed director of the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. In August 2015, Borchers stepped down as director and returned to full-time law faculty duties. Borchers's academic specialties include private international law (conflict of laws), international arbitration and federal jurisdiction and procedure. He is the author, co-author or editor of seven books and about 60 law review articles. Borchers's affidavits have been cited in conflict-of-laws cases in both the U.S. and Ontario. His works have been cited by the United States Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeal. State appellate courts have also cited his writings, including New York, Louisiana, Missouri) New Jersey, Tennessee, Illinois, and Michigan. In 2007, Borchers and several other faculty members at Creighton University authored a report, funded by the

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

on a possible resolution of the outstanding expropriation claims against Cuba in the event of a shift in U.S.-Cuba relations. The report recommended the creation of a Cuba-U.S. Tribunal to resolve the claims and suggested that since Cuba lacked sufficient hard currency to resolve the claims, claimants accept other forms of compensation, e.g. tax-free zones or development rights.

Politics

In 2016, Borchers ran for the Nebraska legislature from the 39th District, a heavily Republican district consisting of the western portion of Douglas County. Under Nebraska's term-limits law, the incumbent, Republican

Beau McCoy Beau McCoy (born November 12, 1980) is an American politician who served as a member of the Nebraska Legislature for the 39th district from 2009 to 2017. Early life and education McCoy was born in Burlington, Colorado, has been active in th ...

, was ineligible to run for a third consecutive term. In the non-partisan primary, Borchers (then a Republican) faced fellow Republican Lou Ann Linehan, who had been an aide for former U.S. senator

Chuck Hagel Charles Timothy Hagel ( born October 4, 1946)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borchers, Patrick 1961 births Living people Lawyers from Madison, Wisconsin Creighton University faculty Notre Dame College of Arts and Letters alumni University of California, Davis alumni Conflict of laws scholars