Anthony J. “Tony” Luppino is an American attorney, legal scholar, and author. A law professor at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law since 1991, he is the Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law and Urban Affairs, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, and Senior Fellow with the UMKC Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. He is particularly active in the areas of entrepreneurship and business law, and cross-disciplinary studies and programs connecting them.
Early life and education
After graduating from South Catholic High School, Luppino earned his Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, graduating magna cum laude in 1979. He was accepted to Stanford Law School, becoming an editor of the Stanford Law Review in his 2L and 3L years and receiving his J.D. degree in 1982. After law school, he was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1982; moving back to Boston to join the law firm of Hedrick & Smith, practicing there from 1982-86. While still practicing, he earned his LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University School of Law in 1986, resuming his editorial duties for the Boston University Journal of Tax Law as its Lead Articles Editor in 1985. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity.
Private practice and academic career
After completing his LL.M., Tony accepted a position at the midwest law firm Brown, Koralchik and Fingersh, in Overland Park, Kansas in 1986, becoming a Partner in 1988. When the firm diverged a year later, he became a Partner in the new offshoot firm of Lewis, Rice and Fingersh in Kansas City, Missouri, where he practiced from 1989-94. His final role in private practice was as a member of the Lewis, Rice and Fingersh L.C., from 1994-2001. His primary areas of practice were taxation, business law, partnerships, and joint ventures. Departing from private practice, Luppino turned his attention to academia and research, areas his contributions would leave a significant and indelible mark, particularly in the cross-disciplinary subjects of law and entrepreneurship.
Luppino joined the faculty of the University of Missouri, Kansas City Law School in 1994, where he taught Partnership Taxation as an adjunct faculty member until 2001. During this transition from private practice to academia, he became increasingly interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship and law. In 2001, he became full-time faculty as an Associate Professor, earning tenure in 2005. He joined the 2004-2005 Kauffman Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars Program, a cross-disciplinary endeavor with faculty representatives from multiple area universities, quickly rising within the Kauffman Foundation and UMKC ranks.
Contributions in entrepreneurship and law
His representation in this program led him to develop an interdisciplinary program for UMKC; its Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Course, the first program of its kind at the university, and the first of many entrepreneurship initiatives he would lead. Soon after, he helped develop and launch the entrepreneurial law website eshiplaw.com, serving as co-founder, board member, and currently, lead editor. In 2010, Luppino was the principal organizer of a new interdisciplinary program for the United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (USASBE), the leading organization in the country for entrepreneurship research and education. Luppino became the initial chair of USASBE’s Law & Entrepreneurship Special Interest Group for the 2010-2011 year, and continues to serve as an instructor, director, and advisor.
His efforts to connect and work with faculty, administrators, and stakeholders within the legal, entrepreneurship, and business communities have produced and aided multiple new courses, competitions, studies, and other interdisciplinary programs, both at the University of Missouri System of schools, and the broader Kansas City community. This includes UMKC’s E-Scholars program, the Regnier Venture Creation Challenge, the UM system E-Ship competition, the Missouri P3 Broadband competition, VentureLab, an IP collaboration with the KU Med School, among others.