CARLISLE, Pa. — Laurel S. Terry, professor of law at Dickinson Law, was named the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law at Dickinson Law during convocation Sept. 17 in the Apfelbaum Family Courtroom and Auditorium in Lewis Katz Hall.
Presented by Interim Dean Gary Gildin, Terry was awarded the chair in law for her excellence through contributions to instruction, research and public service in the broad area of legal ethics and lawyer regulation, including the international and interjurisdictional regulation of the legal profession. Penn State Executive Vice President and Provost Nicholas Jones approved the awarding of the chair.
“Professor Terry is a preeminent scholar who has repeatedly shown a deep commitment to teaching the next generation of Dickinson Law lawyers and whose scholarship has identified emerging issues for the legal profession,” said Gildin. “We are fortunate to have her as part of our faculty and are honored to celebrate her achievements as part of this recognition.”
A three-time Fulbright grant recipient, Terry joined the Dickinson faculty in 1985. She currently teaches Professional Responsibility, a Global Legal Practice seminar and Practicing Law in a Global World: Contexts & Competencies — a course that represents her effort to respond to some of the legitimate critiques of legal education and provide students with the information and skills they need to be an effective lawyer in an interconnected global world. Before her academic career, she served as a law clerk for Judge A.T. Goodwin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, as an intern for Judge J.L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, and worked for a large law firm in Portland, Oregon.
“I am thrilled to receive the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law,” said Terry. “It is, of course, a great honor to be recognized in this fashion by the University, but it is especially meaningful to be awarded a chair that is named for Laddie Montague who is a wonderful role model for our students and shows how a lawyer can combine private practice and public service.”
The chair was endowed by 1963 alumnus H. Laddie Montague Jr., president and shareholder of the Philadelphia firm Berger & Montague. Montague is chair of the firm’s antitrust department and a devout supporter of the law school for many years with both his time and resources. In 2007, the law library was named for Montague to recognize his contributions.
“No entity has been a greater beneficiary of Montague’s service than the Dickinson Law community,” said Gildin. “One of his many acts of generosity was establishing the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law.”
Terry’s scholarship has examined emerging issues for the legal profession and urged stakeholder engagement, new initiatives, and regulatory reform. Her most recent scholarship has focused on proactive regulation for the legal profession, the need for regulatory objectives for the legal profession (which were subsequently adopted by the American Bar Association), and the need to create an international network of legal services regulators (which now exists). She also has written about structural reforms in Australia, Canada, and the U.K.; the application of the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) agreement to legal services; and lawyer confidentiality and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.
Terry has participated in numerous academic conferences and has delivered two named ethics lectures. She was part of the 2016 Association of American Law Schools presidential panel, "Challenges Facing the Legal Profession," which included Harvard Law Dean Martha Minow. She has been invited to speak about her scholarship to U.S. 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, and internationally to the International Conference of Legal Regulators, the International Institute of Law Association Chief Executives, the International Bar Association, the CCBE, and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.
Terry has served as chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Professional Responsibility. She is also active in international, national and state organizations that address lawyer regulation issues and has participated in committees that address all three stages of lawyer regulation: admissions, conduct rules, and discipline. She has participated in the development of International Bar Association resolutions that have been cited in World Trade Organization documents (and has written and spoken about the IBA’s work). In the U.S., she has been active in the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, and the ABA Section of International Law. In Pennsylvania, Terry is a longtime member (and past vice-chair) of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility. She also served on the ad hoc committee appointed by the chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that suggested revisions to the Pennsylvania Code of Judicial Conduct.
Terry has published more than 50 books, book chapters, and articles focused on issues related to lawyer regulation, globalization and the legal profession. She has been cited in and has been interviewed by The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the American Lawyer, the National Law Journal, the ABA Journal, the ABA-BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct, and several Canadian journals.
Within the Dickinson Law community, Terry has served as the elected chair of the faculty and promotion and tenure committee, the elected representative to the University’s Graduate Council, and on committees that include appointments, curriculum, judicial clerkships, and faculty rights and responsibilities, as well as several University-wide international outreach committees. She currently is a member of Penn State’s Driving Digital Steering Committee and has previously served on University committees related to global engagement and Fulbright mentorship.
Terry is an elected member of the American Law Institute. She earned her juris doctor from the UCLA School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. She is a magna cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, San Diego, having received her bachelor of arts in English and Greek literature.