Cynthia Fountaine
Cynthia L. Fountaine joined the UNT Dallas College of Law in 2021 as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law. Dean Fountaine’s areas of expertise include torts, constitutional law, civil procedure, civil rights, professional responsibility, and international courts.
Dean Fountaine received her juris doctorate from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, where she served as Publications Editor of the Southern California Law Review. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics and Public Policy from Indiana University Bloomington Kelley School of Business. She is 2012 alumna of the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education, and a 2015 participant in the Fulbright International Educational Administrators Program in France.
Prior to joining the UNT Dallas College of Law Faculty, Dean Fountaine served at Southern Illinois University School of Law from 2010-2023, and she was Dean from 2010-2017. Before that, she was a professor of law at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law (now Texas A&M University School of Law) from 1997–2010, and she served as Interim Dean of the law school from 2006–08. She taught at the University of Cincinnati College of Law from 1992–1997, and during the 2005–2006 academic year, she was a visiting professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law. Prior to teaching, Dean Fountaine practiced law at O’Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles, California, where she was a litigator.
Dean Fountaine was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Bayreuth in Germany in 2009-2010. Also, in 2010, Dean Fountaine worked with the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative worked in Amman, Jordan, focusing on legal education reform.
Dean Fountaine focuses her teaching and scholarship on issues relating to the powers of government and access to justice, with particular emphasis on the federal courts' role in enforcing individual rights. In addition, her scholarship explores the lawyer's role in assuring effective representation and participation in the judicial system. She has published in the St. Mary’s Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics, Wash U Law Quarterly, American University Law Review, Michigan Journal of Race & Law, SIU Law Journal, University of Cincinnati Law Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, University of Toledo Law Review, and the Widener Law Journal, among others.
Dean Fountaine is a frequent speaker on topics related to legal education has been active in professional and community service as well. She served on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism from 2014-2021 and was an Executive Committee Member from 2016-2021. She was a member of the Deans’ Advisory Committee to the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice. In addition, she was the Chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Women in Legal Education in 2018 and served on that Section’s Executive Committee from 2013 to 2021. She also chaired the Section’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award Subcommittee from 2013-2017. She has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility from 2017-2019.
She has been active on various committees of the International Association of Law Schools, and a volunteer for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. She has served on the Law School Admission Council’s Finance and Legal Affairs Committee and the Committee on Misconduct and Irregularities in the Admissions Process. She has also served on various ABA committees and is a Life Fellow of the Tarrant County Bar Foundation. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Texas Re-Entry Services and was a member of the Rotary Club of Fort Worth. In addition, she served on the Tarrant County Bar Association’s Diversity Committee.
Dean Fountaine is admitted to practice as a member of the State Bar of California and is a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.