PROFESSOR
PETER PITEGOFF
TO
LEAVE UB LAW
Named
Next Dean
of the
University of Maine School of Law
In
July of this year, Peter Pitegoff, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the University
at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York, will become the sixth
dean of the University of Maine School of Law, the only law school in Maine
and one of only two public law schools in New England. Located in the City
of Portland, it is a unit of the University of Maine System and is administratively
affiliated with the University of Southern Maine.
A
law professor at UB since 1988, “Peter has both the vision and leadership
to become the dean of a law school. He possesses a unique blend of law teaching
experience, substantive academic scholarship, public service and administration
skills that were invaluable in helping our Law School grow in reputation and
effectiveness,” said Dean Nils Olsen. “He will be greatly missed by his colleagues
in Buffalo.”
Prior
to his academic career, he was legal counsel for the ICA Group, a Boston firm
that assists community economic development initiatives nationwide. While
in practice, he taught on an adjunct basis at Harvard Law School and at New
York University School of Law.
“With
mixed emotion, after 17 years at UB Law School, I plan to leave for coastal
Maine at the end of this academic year,” Pitegoff said.
“This
move presents a refreshing opportunity, and a chance to return to New England,
where my wife and I met and where our first son was born. Of course, I will
miss a wonderful group of colleagues and friends here in Buffalo. UB Law School
sets a standard of excellence and innovation that I will take with me to another
public law school.”
As
Vice Dean for the past seven years, Pitegoff’s role at UB Law School ranged
from curriculum and faculty development to administrative management, external
affairs, and strategic planning. In this role, Pitegoff worked with faculty,
judges, and lawyers to implement a wide-ranging and flexible curriculum, combining
theory with practice. He helped create two new post-professional LL.M. degree
programs within the Law School and reached out to other departments and schools
to craft interdisciplinary dual degree programs combining a J.D. with a Masters
or Ph.D.
As
a law professor, Pitegoff has taught corporation law, business transactions,
labor policy, community development law, and legal ethics. He has worked and
written extensively in the areas of economic development, labor and industrial
organization, nonprofit corporations, employee ownership and alternative enterprise
forms, welfare and employment policy, and urban revitalization. He founded
a law school clinical program in community economic development law, which
has served as a model for transactional clinics at many other law schools
throughout the United States and which continues to thrive today. Pitegoff
has been actively involved in public policy, including most recently an organized
bar initiative to revise and restate the New York Not-for-Profit Corporation
Law and appointment by the Chief Judge of New York State to serve on the Judicial
Institute for Professionalism in Law. At SUNY-Buffalo, he has been a leader
in charting a strategy for University engagement with the community.
Pitegoff
is a 1975 graduate of Brown University and a 1981 graduate of New York University
School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar. His wife, Ann Casady, is
an accomplished graphic designer and art professor. They have two teenage
sons.
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