Wesley James "Jim" Liebeler (May 9, 1931 – September 25, 2002) was an American law professor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

(''

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

'') and

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

Warren Commission The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...

staff member, and director of the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

’s Office of Policy Planning and Evaluation. Liebeler was born in

Langdon, North Dakota Langdon is a city in Cavalier County, North Dakota, Cavalier County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Cavalier County. The population was 1,909 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Langdon was designated as the count ...

. He received a BA in 1953 from Macalester College and a JD in 1957 from the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...

where he was a member of 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 ...

and served on the editorial board of the ''

University of Chicago Law Review The ''University of Chicago Law Review'' ( Maroonbook abbreviation: ''U Chi L Rev'') is the flagship law journal published by the University of Chicago Law School. It is among the top five most cited law reviews in the world. Up until 2020, it util ...

''. Prior to joining the Warren Commission, he practiced law on

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

. In 1965 Liebeler joined the UCLA Law School, where he taught antitrust law for more than 30 years. In 1999 he joined George Mason’s School of Law and gave courses in antitrust and constitutional political economy law. Liebeler and his flight instructor were killed in 2002 when their

Piper Twin Comanche The Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche is an American twin-engined cabin monoplane designed and built by Piper Aircraft. It was a twin-engined development of the PA-24 Comanche single-engined aircraft. A variant with counter-rotating propellers was ...

crashed into

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Lake Winnipesaukee Lake Winnipesaukee () is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, located in the Lakes Region at the foothills of the White Mountains. It is approximately long (northwest-southeast) and from wide (northeast-southwest), covering & ...

. The

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

summarized the probable cause of the accident: "The flight instructor's failure to maintain airplane control, which resulted in an uncontrolled collision with water." He was married to Susan Liebeler.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebeler, Wesley 1931 births 2002 deaths Federal Trade Commission personnel George Mason University School of Law faculty Macalester College alumni People from Cavalier County, North Dakota UCLA School of Law faculty University of Chicago Law School alumni Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2002 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Warren Commission counsel and staff