Robert C. Fellmeth

Robert C. Fellmeth is Price Professor of Public Interest Law University of San Diego School of Law and director of its Center for Public Interest Law. He joined the faculty in 1977 after a career in public interest law. Professor Fellmeth graduated from Stanford University (AB 1967) and Harvard University School of Law (J.D. 1970). From 1968 to 1973, he was an attorney with the Center for the Study of Responsive Law and was one of the original “Nader’s Raiders.” He has also served as deputy district attorney for San Diego County and assistant U.S. attorney for the Department of Justice in San Diego, specializing in antitrust prosecutions. He is the co-author of the treatise “California White Collar Crime” (w/ Papageorge, Lexis, 2003).

Professor Fellmeth founded the Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL) in 1979. It teaches law students the skills of public interest law, offers clinics and publishes the California Regulatory Law Reporter. Professor Fellmeth served as the California State Bar Discipline Monitor from 1987 to 1991, helping to create an independent State Bar Court. He founded the Children’s Advocacy Institute (CAI) in 1990, which trains law students as child advocates and operates a clinic representing abused children in juvenile dependency court. It also functions as a statewide law firm on behalf of children. Both CPIL and CAI pursue litigation and legislative projects, and have sponsored over thirty enacted statutes relevant to public transparency, ethics, consumer rights, and child health, safety and welfare. Professor Fellmeth has argued 40 published appellate cases in the consumer and child rights subject areas. He is the author of the graduate text, “Child Rights and Remedies” (Clarity, 2003, 2006). He serves on the board of the Maternal and Child Health Access Foundation and the First Star Foundation; is Vice Chair of the Board of the National Association of Counsel for Children; and is counsel to the Board of Voices for America’s Children.