In Memoriam: Professor A.N. Yiannopoulos

• Author: Elizabeth R. Carter
• Position: A.N. Yiannopoulos Professor of Law; Judge Anthony J. Graphia & Jo Ann Graphia Professor of Law, Louisiana State University. B.A., B.S., University of Memphis; J.D., Tulane University; LL.M., University of Alabama.
• Pages: 1103-1106

In Memoriam: Professor A.N. Yiannopoulos

Elizabeth R. Carter*

This issue of the Louisiana Law Review is dedicated to the life and

legacy of A.N. “Thanassi” Yiannopoulos1—who spent the first part of his

teaching career here at LSU.2 Professor Yiannopoulos accepted an offer to

become a tenured member of the LSU law faculty in 1958. He later

confessed that he accepted the position “under the mistaken assumption

that LSU was located, if not in New Orleans, at least in a suburb of the

historical city.”3 Louisiana and LSU will be forever indebted to Professor

Yiannopoulos’s mistake. I am honored to introduce this issue of the

Louisiana Law Review and celebrate the life of my mentor, Professor

Yiannopoulos.

By the time we finish law school, most of us have been in school for

20 years or more and have had dozens of excellent teachers. If you are

truly fortunate, however, you also will have a teacher to whom you can

point and say: “That is the one.” The “one” is that teacher who helped to

set you on the path you were meant to be on all along. The “one” is that

teacher who motivated you to accomplish things you never dreamed

possible. For me, Professor Yiannopoulos was the “one.”

I began law school at Tulane in 2004—towards the end of Professor

Yiannopoulos’s teaching career. I confess that, like Professor

Yiannopoulos, I was a bit confused when I decided to move to New

Orleans from Memphis. I did not know much about the law or Louisiana.

I did not know that Louisiana had a different legal system than the other

49 states. Yet civil law peaked my interest. I met Professor Yiannopoulos

in the fall of my 2L year when I enrolled in his Civil Law Property II

course. The semester did not go as planned—Hurricane Katrina hit shortly

after that first week of class and Tulane was closed for the semester. I

eventually took two courses with Professor Yiannopoulos, and I spent a

good deal of time with him outside of class. I was incredibly fortunate that

Professor Yiannopoulos took me under his wing—supervising my paper

Copyright 2018, by ELIZABETH R. CARTER.

* A.N. Yiannopoulos Professor of Law; J udge Anthony J. Grap hia & Jo

Ann Graphia Professor of Law, Louisiana State University. B.A., B.S., University

of Memphis; J.D., Tulane University; LL.M., University of Alabama.

1. As his students, we often referred to him as “Yippy.” See Jeanne Louise

Carriere, F rom Status to P erson in Book I, Title 1 o f the Civil Code, 73 TUL. L.

REV. 1263, 1264 (1999).

2. At Tulane, he affectionately referred to LSU as “the school up the river.”

3. Tyler G. Storms, I nterview with Pr ofessor A.N. Yiannopoulos:

Louisiana’s Most Influential Jur ist in Our Time, 64 LA. B.J. 24 (2016).