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Tel: 215.898.7061
Fax: 215.746.8266
Email: deanfitts@law.upenn.edu
Expertise
- Administrative Law
- Legislative Process
- Election Law
- Separation of Powers
Bio
Michael A. Fitts is Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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Michael A. Fitts is Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Since his appointment as Dean in 2000, he has been a leading figure in integrating legal teaching and scholarship with approaches from related disciplines – a model that is critical to preparing tomorrow’s lawyers to navigate the increasingly complex global environment in which their clients operate.
Recognized recently as one of the country’s most transformative law deans over the past decade, Dean Fitts has led Penn Law in building cross-disciplinary programs that are unique among the leading law schools. These include developing 30 degree and certificate programs offered in partnership with Wharton, the Medical School, Annenberg and other schools and departments on Penn’s campus; as well as new interdisciplinary courses and clinical programs within the law curriculum. He has expanded the size and academic breadth of the standing faculty, recruiting more than 25 renowned scholars and promising young intellectuals to a faculty in which half of the professors are jointly appointed with other schools at Penn; and 71 percent have advanced degrees in another field in addition to law, including close to 46 percent at the PhD level or equivalent. In addition, during his tenure as Dean Penn Law has expanded its global connections and impacts through a range of international partnerships, programs, and educational and professional opportunities.
Before joining the Penn Law faculty in 1985, Dean Fitts served as a clerk to the Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel to the U.S. Department of Justice, which serves as outside counsel to the White House. He has written on questions of administrative law, presidential power and separation of powers, and has argued for improving the structure of political parties and executive-branch decision making.
Dean Fitts is President of the American Law Deans Society, and a member of the Law and Political Process Study Group of the American Political Science Association.
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Representative Professional Positions
Law Clerk to the Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court Of Appeals, Third Circuit (1979-81)
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)
Visiting Professor - Swarthmore College (Political Science)
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
Representative Publications
What Will Our Future Look Like and How Will We Respond? (Rethinking Legal Education), 96 IOWA L. REV. 1539 (2011).
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A Dean’s Perspective on Ed Baker, 12 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 943 (2010).
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A Time-Honored Model for the Profession and the Academy, 158 U. PA. L. REV. 1289 (2010) (Part of Symposium on Work of Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr.).
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The Non-Management Side of Academic Administration, 41 U. TOL. L. REV. 283 (2010).
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Foreword: The Evolution of International Law, 30 U. PA. J. INT. L. at i-vi (2009) (Foreword to 30th Anniversary Issue Contributions).
Targeted Transparency, 7 ELECTION L.J. 137 (2008) (reviewing Archon Fung et al's FULL DISCLOSURE: THE PERILS AND PROMISE OF TRANSPARENCY (2007)).
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).
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