Carliss Chatman
Carliss N. Chatman is a professor of law at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. She is also a faculty affiliate at Duke University’s Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity.
Chatman’s research examines how corporate personhood, contract structures, corporate governance, and legal norms reinforce racial capitalism and systemic inequality. Her work focuses on the intersection of corporate law, commercial law, race, entrepreneurship, legal ethics, and governance, with particular attention to how business structures affect marginalized communities and constrain economic opportunity.
She previously served as an associate professor at SMU and has concurrently worked as an instructor of contracts for BARBRI Legal Ed and a subject-matter expert for iLAW. She also serves as chair of the Article 2 Committee of the American Bar Association Business Law Section, an academic fellow at the Center for Retail Investors & Corporate Inclusion, and founder of both the Association of American Law Schools Section on Race and Private Law and the Law and Society Association’s Collaborative Research Network on Race and Private Law.
Before joining SMU, Chatman served on the faculty at Washington and Lee University School of Law, where she progressed from visiting assistant professor to assistant professor and then associate professor. During that period, she also held visiting appointments at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Boston University School of Law, William & Mary Law School, and The George Washington University Law School.
Earlier in her academic career, Chatman was an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University College of Law and the Bruce R. Jacob Visiting Assistant Professor at Stetson University College of Law.
Prior to entering academia, Chatman served as chief legal officer of MENA Development Partners. She also practiced law with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and Vinson & Elkins LLP, focusing on commercial litigation, mass-tort litigation, regulatory matters, and transactional work.
Chatman is the author of the children’s book “Companies Are People Too.” She is also a co-author of the casebook “Business Enterprises: An Experiential Approach” and a contributor to “Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Corporate Law.”
She has received the SMU Dedman Law Black Law Students Association Faculty of the Year Award, the Lutie A. Lytle Outstanding Scholar Award, and the Association of American Law Schools Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award.
Chatman earned a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a bachelor’s in English and African American studies from Duke University.
