Matthew Schaefer is the Clayton Yeutter Chair at the University of Nebraska College of Law and Yeutter Institute for International Trade and Finance.  Upon being name Yeutter Chair in January 2022, Professor Schaefer stated:  “I am very honored to be named the Yeutter Chair and continue to work with my remarkable colleagues to continue to grow the Yeutter Institute’s already significant reach in programming for students and stakeholders, and in research.  Clayton Yeutter’s outstanding government service was integral to the formation of the most important international trade agreements and institutions.  Indeed, Ambassador Yeutter’s efforts were highlighted in the opening sentence of my first international trade law course in law school taught by the esteemed Professor John H. Jackson.   I have admired Ambassador Yeutter ever since as a student, trade consultant, government official and faculty member.”

From 2016-2021, he served as the Veronica A. Haggart and Charles R. Work Professor of International Trade Law.  From 2006-2021 he served as the Founding Director, and subsequently Founding Co-Director of the Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Program.  He has over two decades of law teaching experience and has taught courses in international trade law, international business transactions, international law, foreign relations law and policy, introduction to the American legal system, space law, and cyber law. In 2012, he led efforts to have the Law College adopt a required first-year course in international law for all J.D. students, and currently teaches a section of the course after co-teaching a combined course to all 1Ls with Professor Lepard for the seven years. Combined with his required upper-level course in international law for LL.M. students, most University of Nebraska students obtaining a J.D. or LL.M. degree are taught the basics of international law, and the intersection of international law with the US legal system, by Professor Schaefer.

During the 1999 calendar year, Professor Schaefer served as a director in the International Economic Affairs Office of the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House. He was the principal staff member responsible for the formulation, coordination, and implementation of U.S. foreign policy as it relates to international economic issues. In his role as a director, he prepared senior NSC officials for meetings with the President of the United States and foreign dignitaries and attended numerous NSC senior staff meetings, briefed the President of the United States in advance of EU-US Summits, and assisted in the development of international trade policy recommendations, including exempting food and medicine from US sanctions regimes, and seeking resolution of major trade disputes with the European Union.

Professor Schaefer also was the lead person at the Law College in administering an international trade policy, economics, and law-related program in during 2012 and 2013 under a Clayton Yeutter International Trade grant through the US Department of Commerce. The programming included several distinguished international trade law lectures and seminars by visiting distinguished lecturers, including former director of the WTO legal division William Davey, Chair of Sidley and Austin’s DC international trade practice group Andy Shoyer, and Vice-President of Rock Creek Global Advisors Michael Smart.  In the Spring of 2014, Professor Schaefer, with the research assistance of 2L Yeutter Scholar Samantha Ritter, drafted a US Supreme Court amicus brief, arguing that the Court should change the “apply anew” standard of review utilized by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to review trade remedy decisions of the Court of International Trade.  The brief was signed by professors of international trade law at NYU, George Washington University, American University, Columbia University and the University of Illinois. 

In February 2006, Professor Schaefer was named inaugural Director of the space law initiative and subsequently became the founding director of the USA's first degree-bearing Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Program.  He continued as director of the program for over a decade until becoming co-director in 2016-17 along with his colleague Gus Hurwtiz and Professor Schaefer currently serves as Founding co-director, along with fellow co-directors Hurwitz and Beard.  He was integrally involved in gaining University and external approval for the LLM degree (in 2006-07), developing the curriculum, hiring permanent faculty and adjunct faculty for the program, creating the Advisory Board and Alumni Council for the program, gaining University and external approval for the online version of the LLM degree (in 2011), and starting training sessions in the field for the STRATCOM Leadership Fellows.  He is the principal organizer of the program’s annual conferences in Washington, D.C (12 thus far) that now exceed 200 registrants each year.   He also organized the first eight annual Lincoln, NE conferences and has also organized regional conferences on space and cyber law in Omaha (in conjunction with US Strategic Command’s Space and Cyber Symposium), San Diego, CA and Ann Arbor, MI. He was the principle investigator (PI) responsible for administering a $1.71 million NASA grant from 2008-2011 that helped launch the program and co-PI on a $250,000 NASA grant in 2018-2019 to strengthen and diversify the nationwide space law network.

Professor Schaefer is a graduate of the University of Chicago (B.A.) and the University of Michigan Law School (J.D. magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, L.L.M. in international law, S.J.D.). During his law studies, he received the William W. Bishop, Jr. Award for performance with distinction in the field of international law and served an externship at the U.S. State Department-Office of the Legal Advisor. He studied at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia under a Ford Foundation Fellowship. Professor Schaefer is a former term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Academic Outreach Advisory Board. He previously served on the board of editors of the Journal of International Economic Law, and served previously on the advisory board of the Canada-U.S. Law Institute. In his role as co-chair of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) Space Law Committee, he organized, moderated, and presented at panel sessions the past seven years at the ABILA International Law Weekend and regional ABILA conferences. Professor Schaefer is also member of space law committee of International Law Association as well as a member of the International Institute of Space Law.

Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Schaefer served as an international trade consultant to the National Governors' Association and Western Governors' Association in Washington, D.C. during the legislative implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and GATT Uruguay Round multilateral trade agreement. He has also served as a consultant to two members of the European parliament in Brussels, Belgium and the states of Hawaii, Texas, and Utah. The other major thread of Professor Schaefer’s scholarship focuses on the inter-relationship between federalism and international and foreign relations law as well as international trade agreements. Professor Schaefer has supervised numerous externships and independent studies of law students, including at the House Science Committee, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Nebraska Dept. of Agriculture, and US Strategic Command.