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Professor of Law, Emeritus |
About Ackerman
A native of Yonkers, New York, Professor Emeritus Robert M. Ackerman received a B.A. from Colgate University (magna cum laude, with honors in Political Science) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (cum laude). At Harvard he was Acting Director and Litigation Director of the Prison Legal Assistance Project, for which he co-authored the program’s practice manual. After law school, Bob moved to Denver, Colorado, where for four years he was an associate with the law firm of Holme Roberts & Owen (since merged with Bryan Cave). At HRO, Ackerman was engaged primarily in litigation and managed the firm’s pro bono program. Along the way, he was fortunate to marry Janis Freeborn, a happy and productive union that continued for 46 years until Jan’s untimely death in March 2024.
In 1980, Bob was appointed to the faculty of the then-independent Dickinson School of Law, where he taught primarily in the fields of Torts and Dispute Resolution, with forays into Professional Responsibility, Trial Advocacy, and Legal History. Bob introduced hands-on simulations in the torts field and, together with the late Professor Peter Kutulakis, pioneered instruction in dispute resolution at Dickinson Law, introducing courses such as Negotiation and Mediation to the curriculum. He also trained hundreds of Pennsylvania lawyers as mediators and, as a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Committee, helped establish the PBA Lawyer Dispute Resolution Program. A supporter of efforts to expand opportunities in the legal profession, he served as a director and/or instructor at three CLEO institutes hosted by Dickinson Law and received special recognition from the law school’s BLSA chapter.
Bob has been an active scholar and author, writing primarily in the fields of torts, dispute resolution, and communitarianism. His more notable works include LAW AND COMMUNITY: THE CASE OF TORTS (with Robert F. Cochran, Jr.)(Rowman & Littlefield 2004); Communitarianism and the Roberts Court, 45 FLA. ST. UNIV. L.REV. 59 (2017); Making Corporate Law More Communitarian (with Lance Cole), 81 BKLYN L.REV. 895 (2016); Vanishing Trial, Vanishing Community?, 2006 J. DISP. RESOL. 165; The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund: An Administrative Response to National Tragedy, 10 HARV. NEGOT L. REV. 135 (2005); Disputing Together: Conflict Resolution and the Search for Community, 18 OHIO ST. J. ON DISP. RESOL. 27 (2002); Tort Law and Federalism: Whatever Happened to Devolution?, 14:2 YALE LAW AND POLICY REVIEW 429, YALE JOURNAL ON REGULATION 429 (1996); Tort Law and Communitarianism: Where Rights Meet Responsibilities, 30 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 649 (1995); Bringing Coherence to Defamation Law Through Uniform Legislation: The Search for an Elegant Solution, 72 N.CAR. L.REV. 291 (1994); Defamation and Alternative Dispute Resolution: Healing the Sting, 1986 MO. J. DISP. RESOL. 1; Medical Malpractice: A Time for More Talk and Less Rhetoric, 37 MERCER L. REV. 725 (1986); The Seat Belt Defense Reconsidered: A Return to Accountability in Tort Law?, 16 N.M. L. REV. 221 (1986). He served on the Steering Committee of the AALS Section on Dispute Resolution and as Chair of the AALS Sections on Communitarianism and Socioeconomics, and has been an active member of the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution, the Association for Conflict Resolution, and the College of Commercial Arbitrators.
Ackerman viewed his work as a law professor through a communitarian lens, and could therefore not help but accept a series of administrative responsibilities at Dickinson Law. These included his appointment as Associate Dean for Institutional Programs and Planning, in which capacity he played a prominent role in the initial merger discussions with Penn State University in 1995-96. In 1996, Bob was appointed Dean and Professor of Law at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. Significant accomplishments at Willamette included a 60 percent increase in student financial aid, revitalization of alumni organization and annual giving, enhanced visibility of Center for Dispute Resolution and Law and Government program, and an increase in the diversity of the faculty and student body. Returning in 1999 to what was by then Penn State-Dickinson School of Law, Bob was appointed Director of the law school’s Center for Dispute Resolution, where he led what became recognized as one of the nation’s leading dispute resolution programs. Having taught previously at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center, he served on Penn State’s Graduate Council during the early years of the law school’s affiliation with the university.
The dean bug bit again in 2008, when Bob became Dean and Professor of Law at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. There, he was instrumental in establishing the Public Interest Law Fellowships, a Transnational Environmental Law Clinic, an Immigration Law Clinic, a Program in Entrepreneurship and Business Law, and the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. With completion of a $5.7 million building addition to house the Keith Center, Wayne Law established itself as the leading public interest law school in the Midwest. Bob also served for over 11 years as Wayne State’s Faculty Athletic Representative.
After stepping down as Wayne’s Dean, Bob returned full-time to the classroom while continuing to produce scholarship. His faculty colleagues “rewarded” Bob by electing him to the university’s Faculty Senate. He was a Resident Scholar at Wayne State’s Humanities Center, and stepped in to serve as Director of the Levin Center at Wayne Law, advancing the cause of bipartisan legislative oversight and principled policy-making.
In 2022, Bob retired from full-time teaching as the Ackermans moved to Carlisle for the third time; shortly thereafter Bob was appointed Professor Emeritus at Penn State Dickinson Law. (He enjoys a similar appointment at Wayne State.) He currently supervises students in the law school’s graduate program, serves on the board of the Letort Regional Authority, and (in election years) as county counsel for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. For leisure, Bob reads extensively, walks Gracie the Wonder Dog of the Midwest, rides his bicycle, travels, pumps iron, plays golf, and (most importantly) visits his two wonderful daughters, two delightful sons-in-law, and three (going on four) beautiful grandchildren.