William Powers Jr. is the 28th president of The University of Texas at Austin. Before taking office on February 1, 2006, he served as dean of the university's School of Law. As one of the nation's leading scholars in personal injury and products liability, President Powers joined the law school faculty in 1977 and has taught torts, products liability, jurisprudence, legal process, civil procedure, conflict of laws and contracts. In 1997, the university named him to its Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor and holds the Hines H. Baker and Thelma Kelley Baker Chair in Law.

A native of Los Angeles, President Powers received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967. After graduating, he joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed on Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf. Following his military service, he attended Harvard Law School, where he became managing editor of the "Harvard Law Review" and graduated magna cum laude in 1973. He taught at the University of Washington Law School before coming to The University of Texas at Austin in 1977.

He is the author of dozens of articles on tort law and legal philosophy and of several books, including “Cases and Materials in Products Liability” (with David Fischer, Michael Green and Joseph Sanders), “Cases and Materials in Torts” (with David Robertson, David Anderson and Olin Guy Wellborn) and “Texas Products Liability Law.” He is a member of the American Law Institute, where he was co-reporter for the “Restatement (Third) of Torts: Apportionment of Liability” and is co-reporter for the “Restatement (Third) of Torts: Liability for Physical Harm.” President Powers has worked as a legal consultant with the U.S. Congress, the Brazilian legislature and the Texas legislature. In 2001, he chaired a special investigation committee that examined the financial transactions of Enron Corp. The resulting report, which has come to be known as the “Powers Report,” and his subsequent testimony before Congress, gained national recognition.

He is married and has five children.