Megan Carpenter

Megan Carpenter is dean and professor of law of the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law.

Dean Carpenter is a transformational leader. Under her tenure, UNH Franklin Pierce has increased enrollment by over 230%, increased giving over 330%, and increased the number of students of color more than five-fold. Dean Carpenter has been named one of the Most Influential People in Legal Education by National Jurist.

Her talent for driving initiatives from concept to execution has had a demonstrable positive impact at multiple institutions. Most recently she led the creation of the Hybrid JD in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Information Law, a national award-winning program and the first hybrid program for a specialized area of the law in the US. The program is designed to make legal education accessible to working professionals in IP-intensive industries. It has experienced strong growth year-over-year since its inception in 2019, and in 2022 the program was recognized as one of the top law school innovators nationwide by Bloomberg. Carpenter is also the founder and former director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M School of Law.

Dean Carpenter is a global strategist, having built partnerships and programs across six continents. She believes in a practical approach to legal theory and policy, as evidenced by the numerous opportunities she has created for students to gain meaningful, practical experience before they graduate law school. The impact such opportunities have on lawyers-in-training is a hallmark of Dean Carpenter’s leadership style and a personal point of pride.

She has over 20 years of experience as a global leader in Intellectual Property and technology. She speaks around the world on topics related to IP, technology, and legal education. She is also a prolific writer in IP and innovation, including the book, “Evolving Economies: The Role of Law in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.” She has written multiple book chapters and published works in the Hastings Law Journal, Fordham Law Review, Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, and the Yale Journal of Human Rights and Development, and in popular media, such as the New York Times, NPR, IAM, Chicago Tribune, Salon, and Smithsonian Magazine.

Carpenter is a community-minded executive and has organized legal support for underserved communities to support economic development in New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia.

Dean Carpenter practiced law at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart (now K&L Gates), where she represented clients on technology-focused legal issues, and at Carpenter & Bruning, a boutique IP and entertainment law firm.