PROFESSOR TERRY TRANSITIONS TO LIFE AS AN EMERITUS PROFESSOR
July 2021 — After 36 years at Penn State Dickinson Law, Professor Laurel S. Terry has retired. Effective July 1, 2021, she is the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law Emerita and Professor of Law Emerita.
Professor Terry joined Dickinson Law in August 1985. She moved to Carlisle from Portland, Oregon, where she had clerked for the Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked in the litigation department of Stoel Rives. During her tenure at Penn State Dickinson Law, Professor Terry primarily taught Civil Procedure, Professional Responsibility, a seminar in international cross-border legal practice, and - more recently - a required 1L course she developed that currently is called Law Practice II: Contexts and Competencies. (The Contexts and Competencies course helps students develop extra-legal competencies and professional identity through reading assignments, course assignments, guest lectures from lawyers, and by requiring students to conduct multiple informational interviews with lawyers.)
During her time at Penn State Dickinson Law, Professor Terry was an active scholar. Her career also included significant internal and external service. Her University-wide appointments included service on Penn State’s Graduate Council and several of its committees, appointment to several University committees designed to foster international collaboration, and, most recently, serving until June 30, 2021 as Co-Chair of the University’s Strategic Plan Empowering Through Digital Innovation Steering Committee. At Dickinson Law, Professor Terry served as Chair of the Faculty and chaired (multiple times) committees that included Promotion & Tenure, Curriculum, and Faculty Development. During her last year at Dickinson, Professor Terry served as the inaugural Associate Dean for Research and New Faculty Development. On May 5, 2021, Dickinson Law’s Faculty adopted by acclamation a resolution that included the following paragraphs:
WHEREAS, Laurel has served as a thoughtful, skilled, demanding and kind classroom educator and mentor for generations of students, taking them from their very first semester to their last hours of preparation for state bar examinations, while also bringing these same qualities to bear in support of new faculty as they begin their own scholarship and teaching endeavors, and as she will be remembered as one of the hardest working, most collegial members of the faculty and administration at Dickinson Law,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the faculty extends its deep gratitude and appreciation to Laurel S. Terry for her dedication to the profession of law, for her service through legal education, and for her academic and scholarly leadership, and the faculty extends its very best wishes to Laurel as she embarks on her new role as an emeritus member of the faculty of Dickinson Law, whether residing in Pennsylvania, Florida, California, Hawaii or abroad, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution be preserved in the records and minutes of the Dickinson Law Faculty and that a copy of this resolution be maintained as a permanent record of her accomplishments at Dickinson Law, The Pennsylvania State University.
Volume 126(1) of the Dickinson Law Review will be dedicated to Professor Terry and include a short tribute co-authored by former deans Gary Gildin and Peter Glenn.
During her “retirement,” Professor Terry hopes to continue interacting with Dickinson Law students and faculty and plans to continue her active involvement in state, national, and international committees that focus on issues related to the regulation of lawyers. Professor Terry’s current appointments include serving as a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on International Trade in Legal Services, the ABA Task Force on Gatekeeper [AML] Regulation and the Legal Profession, and the International Bar Association’s BIC Regulation Committee, as well as its International Trade in Legal Services Committee. During her retirement, Professor Terry hopes to continue working with organizations such as the International Conference of Legal Regulators, National Organization of Bar Counsel, National Conference of Bar Examiners, and Conference of Chief Justices. Professor Terry will retain an office at the law school and her email addresses and webpage links will remain the same. See, e.g., https://dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/laurel-s-terry, https://works.bepress.com/laurel_terry/, and https://tinyurl.com/laurelterryslides.
Professor Emerita Laurel S. Terry, who held the inaugural H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Chair in Law and was Dickinson Law’s inaugural Associate Dean for Research and New Faculty Development, is a three-time Fulbright recipient who writes and speaks about the impact of globalization on the legal profession, especially with respect to regulatory issues. Her scholarship has identified emerging issues for the legal profession and urged stakeholder engagement, new initiatives, and regulatory reform. In addition to speaking at academic and professional conferences, she has been invited to speak about her scholarship to organizations that include the Conference of Chief Justices, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the National Organization of Bar Counsel, the National Conference of Bar Presidents, the CCBE, which represents EU’s legal profession and legal regulators, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the International Institute of Law Association Chief Executives, the International Bar Association, and the International Conference of Legal Regulators.