University Times

Chip Carter

A self-described consensus-builder with a high-energy level and enthusiasm for his latest career move, William M. “Chip” Carter Jr. will assume the deanship of Pitt’s School of Law on July 1.

A professor of law since 2007 at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, Carter has taught courses in constitutional law, civil procedure, political and civil rights, current issues in civil rights law and litigation basics.

His published scholarship focuses on constitutional law, particularly the 13th Amendment, civil rights, critical race theory and international human rights law.

Prior to his appointment at Temple, Carter was a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he earned his law degree in 1998. Earlier in his career he worked as a litigation associate in the Washington, D.C., offices of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey and Ropes & Gray.

He was a law clerk with the General Counsel’s Office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in summer 1997.

A Cleveland native, Carter earned his bachelor’s degree at Bowling Green State University in 1994.

In a phone interview from Philadelphia last week, Carter discussed how he views his new role as dean and some of his plans and priorities.

“I want to convey my excitement to be joining the Pitt community and share my enthusiasm to take on this role and become a part of the Pittsburgh community,” Carter told the University Times, adding that his wife and two young children also are excited about the move across the state.

He said the first order of business is to sound out the law school community about their vision for the future.

“As we develop a consensus, I’ll be better able to talk about specific plans I may have for going forward,” Carter said. “I’m highly reluctant to discuss specific matters at this point. While I certainly have many ideas and initiatives in mind, I believe that it is critical to have the input of the law school’s faculty, staff and students, as well as folks in the central University administration. I do not want to ‘get too far ahead of my skis,’ preferring that whatever processes we may develop in charting the future directions of the law school will include ensuring broad input.”

Carter acknowledged he’s facing a learning curve in his new role as academic administrator, adding this was not part of any grand plan. “If you would have asked me 10 years ago if moving into administration is my ultimate career goal, I would probably have said no,” Carter said.

“This is my 12th year in academia, and as one’s career goes on, there just naturally are more administrative duties,” he said. For example, at Temple he served on executive, faculty recruitment and selection, and faculty review committees, and at Case he was a member of a special committee integrating lawyering skills into the curriculum.

“I enjoyed all my work on those committees. So over time, I’ve come to appreciate more the importance of academic administration,” he noted.

Likewise, he needs to learn the lay of the land in Pittsburgh and at Pitt. “Initially, my knowledge of the University was focused on the law school and I was familiar with a good portion of the scholarly work of the Pitt faculty. So I felt I had a good appreciation of the school when I sought the dean’s position.”

He said he considered applying for other law school dean openings, but that Pitt’s position was the only one he really wanted to pursue seriously.

“As I talked to friends and colleagues, I learned more about the solid reputation of Pitt’s law school, the good scholarly foundation, the strong commitment to the school’s teaching mission and the caring about the student experience. I gradually developed a better appreciation of the University as a whole during the interview process,” Carter said.

As a result of that knowledge, as dean he plans to pursue interdisciplinary collaborations with other units in the University. In addition, because Oakland is such an educationally rich area, Carter sees opportunities to collaborate with neighboring institutions, such as Carnegie Mellon.

“I do have some priorities,” he noted. “One is to see the law school respond to the legal community as it develops, as well as to the evolving nature of legal education. We are in an economic crisis,” particularly as a state-related institution with eroding state support, he said, something Temple is facing as well.

“And I believe we also are facing a crisis of faith in the legal system, the bar and the value of legal education, and I understand the critiques. We have to rethink how training students in legal doctrine meshes with training them to work in the legal field,” Carter said, particularly in an environment where employment opportunities for new graduates are becoming more scarce.

“Pitt already has been rethinking the legal-education model, with programs like the Innovation Practice Institute and the redesigning of the first-year curriculum, for example. I think we need to continually do that re-evaluation.”

That leads to a second priority, Carter said, which is to focus on which education and skills are needed to train the 21st-century lawyer for employment. “We need to look honestly at what we’re doing well and what we’re doing not as well,” he said. “We need to make sure that legal theory is integrated with experiential learning and practical-skills training to prepare students to excel as 21st-century lawyers.”

As is the case for deans of all ilks, fundraising is an important component of the job. Carter acknowledged that his fundraising experience is limited to one of his duties as a board member of the Ohio Racial Fairness Report Project, 2002-06.

“That was very low-level, and certainly nothing on the same scale as being dean of the law school. So I plan to educate myself on the technical skills needed for fundraising, and to work with the school’s development staff to work out strategies,” Carter said.

“What I do believe is that successful fundraising is a function of being energized and enthusiastic about the school and its programs when you talk to people. I don’t think there was an extra emphasis on fundraising during the interview process; I would say there was an appropriate emphasis. As a state-related institution we face big budget issues, and while there have been some encouraging signs in the state legislature recently, I don’t see any immediate funding increases,” he said.

“I’d also like to strengthen ties with the alumni, not only for fundraising but for employment opportunities for our graduates,” he added. “It’s very important that I get out into the local legal community and partner with it. If that means going to firms Downtown, I plan to do it. I want to be out there.”

At age 41, Carter is relatively young as law deans go. “Being the dean of the law school and the public face of the law school is a highly visible position. I think my age can cut in two ways,” Carter said. “In talking to people who are older than me, I would hope that they would take my energy and enthusiasm as a sign that I’ll bring new ideas and directions that ultimately will benefit the school. But it’s possible they could feel that the level of experience is more important, and express some trepidation that I’m someone who hasn’t ‘toiled in the vineyards.’ But in either case, the most important thing is I want the input of people who know more than me, whether they are older or maybe younger. I want to learn from others. I would hope that most people would see that I’m thoughtful enough to take that approach,” Carter said.

Law school rankings in such publications as U.S. News and World Report are an important consideration of any law dean, he maintained.

“With rankings, I think you have to look at the big picture. As an individual faculty member, I did not think about rankings much. I loved the students I had and I always respected and liked my colleagues, and rankings just didn’t matter to me,” Carter explained.

“Rankings are one metric of reputation, but not the only one. As dean I need to broaden the lens, to take a holistic view of reputation. Rankings are not important because they’re perfect, they’re important because people attach importance to them. I do plan to look at what we can do to improve our rankings, but you don’t want the tail wagging the dog. And I want to stress, I will do it with integrity. There will be absolutely no manipulation of data on my watch.”

However, Carter pointed out that many of the ways to improve rankings “are things we want to do anyway, such as increase the bar-passage rate; increase our selectivity of students; increase the scholarly reputation of the faculty — these are things you do for their own sake.”

He also listed increasing the diversity of the faculty and student body as a priority.

“Diversity is a concern of mine personally. It’s an issue that deserves more attention. For me, in addition to race and ethnicity, diversity includes gender, ideology, class, background. In the interview process it also was a concern raised by the students,” Carter noted. “The school’s faculty is less diverse than the average at our peer schools. In terms of gender diversity, that’s a problem at most law schools. The student body is closer to the average, but still not there. It’s not a matter of numbers; it’s a matter of making sure that opportunities are available, that doors are open. I want to improve diversity, and I plan to devote energy and resources to doing that. But I will also say there is no silver bullet.”

—Peter Hart