|
Tel: 215.898.7061
Fax: 215.573.2025
Email: deanfitts@law.upenn.edu
Expertise
- Administrative Law
- Election Law
- Legislative Process
- Separation of Powers
Bio
Michael A. Fitts is the Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
[More]
Michael A. Fitts is the Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Since becoming dean in 2000, he has been a leading proponent of integrating legal teaching and scholarship with the approaches of other disciplines. He firmly believes that tomorrow’s lawyers must have critical thinking skills that are developed by analyzing problems from multiple intellectual perspectives.
He has furthered that approach by making Penn Law the strongest cross-disciplinary law school in America. Fitts has recruited more than 25 distinguished scholars and promising young intellectuals to a faculty in which one-half of the professors are jointly appointed with other schools at Penn; 70 percent of the Law School’s faculty have an advanced degree in another field in addition to law, including 50 percent with a Ph.D. He encourages Law School students to take up to four classes elsewhere at Penn toward their J.D. or choose from 30 joint-degree and certificate programs offered in partnership with Penn’s graduate and professional schools, including Wharton and the Medical School. This unique curriculum has significantly expanded placement of Penn Law students, not only in Federal clerkships and with major law firms, but also in alternative public interest and business careers.
From 1979 to 1981, after earning an A.B. from Harvard and his J.D. from Yale Law School, Fitts clerked for the late Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. From 1981 through 1985, he served as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he received a Special Commendation Award from the Attorney General of the United States for his work. In 1985, Dean Fitts joined the Penn Law faculty. He has written on questions of administrative law, presidential power and separation of powers, and he has argued for improving the structure of political parties and executive branch decision-making. He is a member of the the Executive Committee of the American Law Deans Association, where he serves as Vice President; the World Affairs Council; the Policy Advisory Board of The Reinvestment Fund; and the Law and Political Process Study Group of American Political Science Association.
[Hide]
Representative Professional Positions
Penn Law - Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law (2000- ); Robert G. Fuller, Jr.
Professor of Law (1996-2000); Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (1996-98); Professor (1992-96); Associate Professor (1990-92); Assistant Professor (1985-90)
Law Clerk to the Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court Of Appeals, Third Circuit (1979-81)
Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. - Attorney Advisor (1981-85) The Office of Legal Counsel serves as outside counsel to the President, White House, and Cabinet
Visiting Professor - Swarthmore College (Political Science)
Representative Publications
The Explosion in International Law, U. PA. J. INT. L. (forthcoming 2009) (Symposium on International Law).
The Challenges of Leadership, 40 TOL. L. REV. (forthcoming, 2009) (Symposium on Deaning).
Targeted Transparency, 7 ELECTION L.J. 137 (2008).
Back to the Future: The Supreme Courts Response to the Changing Goals and Functions of Modern Political Parties, in THE SUPREME COURT AND THE ELECTORAL PROCESS (David Hope ed., 2002).
The Complicated Ingredients of Wisdom and Leadership, 16 HARV. BLACKLETTER L.J. 17 (2000).
The Hazards of Legal Fine Tuning: Confronting the Free Will Problem in Election Law Scholarship, 32 LOY. L. REV. 1121 (1999).
The Legalization of the Modern Presidency: Twenty-Five Years After Watergate, 43 ST. LOUIS U. L.J. 725 (1999).
The Triumph of Timing: 'Raines v. Byrd' and the Modern Supreme Court's Attempts to Control Constitutional Confrontations, 86 GEO. L.J. 351 (1998) (with Devins).
The Paradox of Power in the Modern State: Why a Unitary Centralized Presidency May Not Exhibit Effective or Legitimate Leadership, 144 U. PA. L. REV. 827 (1996).
Book Review, 13 J. POL. ANAL. & MGMT. 811 (1994) (reviewing G. COX & M. MCCUBBINS, LEGISLATIVE LEVIATHAN (1994)).
Ways of Thinking about the Unitary Executive, 15 CARDOZO L. REV. 323 (1993).
Book Review, 12 J. POL. ANAL. & MGMT. 223 (1993) (reviewing B. ACKERMAN, WE THE PEOPLE (1993)).
Book Review, 10 CONST. COM. 194 (1992) (reviewing J. FISHKIN, DEMOCRACY AND DELIBERATION (1993)).
Book Review, 11 J. POL. ANAL. & MGMT. 332 (1992) (reviewing C. SUNSTEIN, AFTER THE RIGHTS REVOLUTION - RECONCEIVING THE REGULATORY STATE (1993)).
Controlling Congress: Presidential Influence in Domestic Fiscal Policy, 80 GEO. L.J. 1737 (1992) (with Inman).
For additional publications, please consult
Current & Recent Research
Current Working Papers
Rethinking Separation of Powers from the Ground Up: The Political Dynamic of Separated Powers (U. Pa. Institute for Law and Economics) (Portions Presented at the Convention of the American Political Science Association) (148 pages).
The Budgetary Effects of the Voting Rights Act: Did VRA Make a Difference? (with Inman) (U. Pa. Institute for Law and Economics) (Portions Presented at the Convention of the American Political Science Association) (42 pages).
|
