Henry P. Weihofen, an important mainstay of the University of New Mexico School of Law, was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1904. He was a three time graduate of the University of Chicago: B. Phil., J.D., and J.S.D. He finished his education in 1930. He taught in the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder for nine years. He was then called to Washington D.C. where he helped to develop the National Board of Legal Examiners, and, when World War II broke out, he served as a member of War Labor Board and on the United States Department of Justice Board of Claims. After the war, he taught briefly at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. In 1948, he was recruited by his close friend Alfred Gausewitz, the dean of the newly created UNM School of Law, to come to Albuquerque. Weihofen remained in his faculty position from 1948 to 1979.
During his tenure at UNM, he established a reputation as a vigorous and demanding teacher. He was an early leader in the field of legal forensic psychiatry and a crusading expert in legal rights for the criminally insane. He won the American Psychiatric Association’s prestigious Isaac Ray award in 1955 and was elected as an honorary fellow in 1965. A prolific writer, he authored seven books and scores of articles. Another of his major crusades was to make legal writing more understandable to ordinary people. To that end, he wrote an important text book, Legal Writing Style, which was widely adopted. After retiring in 1979, he research and wrote History of the Law School, 1947-1987. He died in 1993.
From the guide to the Henry P. Weihofen Papers, 1926-1988, (University of New Mexico School of Law Library)
