Professor of Law

For Carol Needham, the time to write about legal issues is not when they are settled but when they begin to percolate.

“That’s when you can make the most difference,” she says. “You write before things happen so you can get something going, testify before the rules committees and push for change in a direction that’s positive. I like being in the mix.”

A prolific writer and speaker, Professor Needham has been in the mix on several issues — primarily under the umbrella of legal ethics and professional responsibility. Presently, her scholarship centers on the ethics issues faced by in-house counsel and lawyers in transactional practice, cross-border practice and professional licensing issues, including the multijurisdictional practice of law. Needham’s recent articles include: "Practicing Non-U.S. Law in the United States: Multijurisdictional Practice, Foreign Legal Consultants and Other Aspects of Cross-Border Legal Practice," 15 Michigan State Journal of International Law 605 (2007). "The Professional Responsibilities of Law Professors: The Scope of the Duty of Confidentiality, Character and Fitness Questionnaires, and Engagement in Governance," Journal of Legal Education (March 2006). "Enhancing a Law Department’s Flexibility to Respond to Unexpected Challenges: MultiJurisdictional Practice and the In-House Lawyer," Corporate Counsel Newsletter (February 2006).

She also is co-author of the upcoming fourth edition of the ethics textbook, Lawyers and the Legal Profession. She is including material on conflicts of interest, malpractice, confidentiality, foreign legal advisers, issues facing lawyers in transactional practice and in-house counsel, the glass ceiling and work life balance, multijurisdictional practice and the unauthorized practice of law.

Professor Needham graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1985 and clerked for Chief Judge Harold M. Fong of the U.S. District Court in Honolulu. She practiced with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles where, among other things, she negotiated and documented loan workouts, mergers, IPOs, private placements and acquisitions, and participated in commercial litigation. In 1990, she joined Chadbourne & Parke, where she negotiated and documented employment contracts, licensing agreements, power plant construction and operation agreements and project financing documents.

Lured by the “tremendous freedom of being able to call things like you see them,” Professor Needham joined Saint Louis University School of Law in 1992.

“Without practice experience, my teaching style probably would have been more theoretical,” Needham says. “Law can be taught as a science. But practice highlights the judgment calls and other aspects of the law that are really an art.”