Professor William Rodolph Cornish

By Lesley Dingle and Daniel Bates

Professor William Rodolph Cornish 1937 - 2022

Biography

• Born: 9 August 1937, Adelaide, Australia
• 1956-1960: Adelaide University LLB
• 1960-62: Oxford University: Wadham College
• 1962-68: Assist Lect LSE
• 1963: Bar (Grays Inn)
• 1968: Visiting Lecturer, University of Adelaide.
• 1969-70: Reader, Queen Mary College
• 1970-90: Professor of English Law LSE
• 1978: Visiting Researcher Max Planck Institute Munich
• 1984: Fellow of British Academy
• 1990-1995: Professor of Law at Cambridge
• 1990-95: Director CELS
• 1992: Started the Warsaw project
• 1993-94: National Academies Policy Action Group, Working Party on Intellectual Property (Chairman). NAPAG
• 1995-2004: Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Cambridge
• 1998-2001: President Magdalene College.
• 1997: Cambridge University LLD
• 1997: Honorary Fellow LSE
• 1998: Bencher Gray’s Inn
• 1997: QC
• 2004: Retired
• 2004: Honorary LLD, University of Edinburgh
• 2013: CMG [Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George]
• 2018: Honorary LLD, University of Adelaide

The Centre of Intellectual Property and Information Law, which Professor Cornish had established on his retirement, celebrated his contribution by dedicating the Spring Conference 2023 to an examination of the concept of "intellectual property"

At the same time, a fund to support doctoral researchers in intellectual property was established in honour of Professor Cornish.