Professor Janet Flaccus earned her undergraduate degree from Wheaton College; her J.D. from the University of California at Davis, summa cum laude; and her graduate law degree from the University of Illinois. Flaccus joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1984 as assistant professor and in 1994 was promoted to the rank of full-time professor. In doing so, she became the first female full-time professor on the law faculty. Flaccus's academic interests included domestic relations as well as commercial law, contracts, sales and leasing, bankruptcy, and negotiable paper. Flaccus regularly taught Continuing Legal Education classes for attorneys and was recognized as a "Best in CLE" presenter several times by the Arkansas Bar Association. She also spent many years on the Charles and Nadine Baum Faculty Teaching Award Committee. In 2018, she retired after 35 years of teaching and conducting research in an academic setting.

Professor Flaccus passed away in Fayetteville at the age of 70 on March 3, 2020.