Leadership
The leaders of Charlotte School of Law collectively and individually support the strategic goals and mission of the school through all decisions pertaining to strategic initiatives and long and short term planning.
Board of Advisors
Charlotte School of Law is governed by a regional Board of Advisors, a Fiduciary Board of Directors, and The InfiLaw System National Policy Board. The Board of Advisors is composed of individuals with significant experience in legal education and expertise in various aspects of the legal profession. The primary responsibility of the Board of Advisors is to make recommendations to the Fiduciary Board of Directors on academic policy, standards, processes and school administration. The membership of the Board includes:
Shirley Fulton (chair), retired North Carolina Superior Court Judge and partner in the law firm Tin, Fulton, Greene and Owen. Fulton served in the court system for more than 20 years, first as an assistant district attorney, and later as district court judge, resident superior court judge and senior resident superior judge.
Arthur J. Gallagher, President of Johnson & Wales University Charlotte campus and formerly Associate Dean of Student Life and Director of Residential Life at Brown University for 24 years. Mr. Gallagher has been involved with university student life and residential life issues for more than two decades and has leadership roles in many Charlotte business and civic organizations.
Richard A. Matasar, Vice President for University Enterprise Initiatives and Professor of Management at New York University. He was Dean, President and Professor of Law at New York Law School and was the Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of Law at the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law, one of the 10 largest law schools in the nation, and served as its ninth dean. He also served as the dean of Chicago-Kent College of Law, from 1991-96 and helped to establish it as one of the nation's most technologically sophisticated schools.
Henry Ramsey, Jr., distinguished prosecutor, private practitioner, law professor, California Superior Court judge and former dean of Howard University School of Law. He achieved the rank of full professor at Boalt Hall and also served as Chairperson of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and numerous law association boards.
Leigh Taylor, Dean Emeritus, Professor of Law and Director of the International Entertainment Law Summer Program at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. Taylor has been a long-term member and past chair of the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) Board of Advisors. A member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Law School Accreditation Committee for several years, he is often called upon to chair law school site evaluation teams for both the ABA Section on Legal Education and the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).
Fiduciary Board of Directors
The law school’s Fiduciary Board of Directors maintains fiduciary responsibility for the company, similar to a board of directors of a typical corporation. It is responsible for acting upon recommendations and input from the Board of Advisors and taking other corporate actions as necessary. The Fiduciary Board of Directors of Charlotte School of Law is composed of the Charlotte School of Law’s President, as well as the following individuals:
Shirley Fulton, retired North Carolina Superior Court Judge and partner in the law firm Tin, Fulton, Greene and Owen. Fulton served in the court system for more than 20 years, first as an assistant district attorney, and later as district court judge, resident superior court judge and senior resident superior judge.
James J. Hanks, Jr., partner at Venable, LLC (a large law firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland) and former member of the Accreditation Committee of the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
Don Lively, President, Charlotte School of Law; President Lively was founding dean and chancellor at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida. He was the William H. Maier, Jr. Chair of Law at West Virginia University College of Law and a professor at University of Toledo College of Law. Prior to teaching, Dean Lively practiced with a private law firm with Denver, as in-house counsel for a newspaper, and with the Office of the General Counsel, Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. He also clerked for Jim R. Carrigan, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. He is the author or coauthor of numerous law review articles, casebooks and law books.
Dennis Stone, President, Florida Coastal School of Law; President Stone was a founding executive officer of InfiLaw Consortium, serving as Vice President for Operations and New School Development. He also served as a founding executive of Florida Coastal School of Law assisting in developing the academic program, library, facilities and technology, and financial systems. Prior to Florida Coastal, he was a tenured Professor of Law and Law Librarian at the University of Connecticut. Stone served in a similar capacity at Gonzaga University School of Law. He has taught in a number of areas including torts, computer law, international law, maritime law, jurisprudence and law and information policy in the United States, Great Britain, and Africa.
Tom D. Wippman, principal with Sterling Capital Partners and serves as its general counsel. Since joining Sterling Capital Partners, Mr. Wippman has been responsible for the structure and documentation of all of Sterling Capital Partners’ buyout transactions. Previously, Mr. Wippman practiced law with Pedersen & Houpt, P.C.
National Policy Board
The InfiLaw System National Policy Board includes national and international authorities in law, education, government and business. These leaders provide counsel upon the strategic direction and long-term plans for the InfiLaw System of independent law schools and assist in the establishment of best practices to the benefit of all of the law schools.
Dennis Archer, Chairman, a past president of the American Bar Association, former associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and two-term mayor of Detroit. Currently serves as Chairman of Dickinson Wright PLLC.
Charles E. "Bud" Jones, immediate past chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, having served in the state's top judicial post for three years. Prior to his appointment to the Court in 1996, Justice Jones spent more than 30 years in private practice.
Rudy Hasl, dean of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California and former chair of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar which, among other things, oversees the law school accreditation process.
Arthur Miller, distinguished professor of law, accomplished law practitioner and author of more than 40 books. Critically acclaimed legal writer and commentator for ABC, PBS, Court TV, among others.
Horst Schulze, co-founder and former president and COO of the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company; and president and CEO of The West Paces Hotel Group, a newly formed company focused on creating and operating luxury hotels.
Robert K. (Bob) Walsh, dean of the Wake Forest University School of Law from 1989 until his retirement in 2007 after tenure in which he transformed the law school into one of the leading schools in the country.
Martha Walters Barnett, a partner in the Florida law firm of Holland & Knight LLP, has had a distinguished legal career, having held the positions as president of the American Bar Association, member of the ABA Board of Governors and as the first woman to serve as chair of the ABA House of Delegates.