Background

Before joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Law, Professor Byars served on the faculty at Mercer University School of Law.  Professor Byars also intermittently serves as a visiting professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law.  

Professor Byars earned his J.D. at the University of Tennessee College of Law where he graduated as the valedictorian of his law school class and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Tennessee Law Review.  He earned his undergraduate degree in economics and finance at the University of Tennessee at Martin.  Following law school, Professor Byars served as a judicial law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.  Professor Byars’s other relevant work experience includes experience in a United States Attorney’s Office and large and small law firms.  Professor Byars consults on business law, criminal law, and appellate matters.

Professor Byars teaches or has taught in the areas of business law, contracts, criminal law, and evidence. Professor Byars’s scholarly work focuses on corporate crime and has appeared or will appear in the Arizona State Law Journal, the Boston College Law Review, the Florida Law Review, the Mississippi Law Journal, and the Tennessee Law Review.

Selected Scholarship

• The Shareholder "Say on Crime" Vote, 58 Ariz. St. L. J. __ (forthcoming 2027)
• A Concrete Standard of Judicial Review for Corporate Deferred Prosecution Agreements, 78 Fla. L. Rev. 575 (2026).
• Recidivist Organizational Offenders and the Organizational Sentencing Guidelines, 66 B.C. L. Rev. 745 (2025).

Education 

• J.D., The University of Tennessee
• B.S.B.A., The University of Tennessee at Martin