Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Founded: 1895
Joined AALS: 1900
Dean: Amy J. Wildermuth
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law is known for its outstanding faculty, emphasis on the student educational experience, and service to local, national, and global communities through its innovative clinics and programming. It is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence, intellectual rigor, professionalism and integrity, and, most of all, justice. The law school has maintained a high-quality student body by offering a low student-to-faculty ratio and a high cost-to-value ratio with a record of lowering student costs and debt over time. As one of the premier public law schools in the nation, Pitt Law prepares students for a wide variety of opportunities from big law firms to government service and is especially proud of its robust annual support for public interest fellowships, which now includes four Justice John Paul Stevens fellowships. It also benefits from incredibly talented and engaged alumni who regularly offer their time and resources to support Pitt Law students and graduates.
Pitt Law’s new Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice, supported by the Eberly Foundation and the Heinz Endowments, serves as an active intellectual hub for students, faculty, and community members to collaborate on civil rights and racial justice projects. It is a living embodiment of the law school’s commitment to legal issues related to civil and human rights and to transforming the system of justice to ensure equal justice for all.
The center is co-directed by Professor Sheila Velez Martinez, Professor of Refugee, Asylum, and Immigration Law and Director of Clinical Programs, and Professor William M. Carter, Jr., an expert on issues of civil rights and race and the law. Gabby M.H. Yearwood, Senior Lecturer in Pitt’s Department of Anthropology and advocate for social and racial justice, serves as Managing Faculty Director. In addition, over half of the law school’s faculty are aligned with civil rights issues, constitutional law, and human rights and are engaged in the center’s important work. The center serves as a convener of efforts to advance constitutional, legislative, and regulatory protections of civil and human rights and a leader in direct engagement with the issues facing the global, national, and Western Pennsylvania communities. “We are extremely fortunate to have two of the nation’s foremost engaged scholars on racial and human rights issues to lead this important work. They not only create a robust academic exchange; like our seven clinics but foster students’ direct engagement with the issues facing Pittsburgh and the broader Western Pennsylvania region. In all facets, the Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice is the living embodiment of our law school’s commitment to transform our system of justice to ensure equality for all,” said Pitt Law Dean Amy J. Wildermuth.
