Catherine J. Lanctot

Professor Emeritus

Biography

Catherine J. Lanctot was a professor of law and retired in 2022 after 34 years of service at Villanova Law, where she taught constitutional law, American legal history and legal profession. Lanctot is a graduate of Brown University and Georgetown University Law Center. From 1981 to 1982, she served as a law clerk to the Hon. Murray M. Schwartz of the United States District Court of Delaware. After a year as an associate in the Washington, DC office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Lanctot joined the federal programs branch of the civil division of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, DC, serving first as a trial attorney and then as the assistant branch director for government information.  

Lanctot’s primary area of scholarly interest is the intersection of legal ethics and technology. Her legal ethics writings include Becoming A Competent 21st Century Legal Ethics Professor: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Technology (But Were Afraid To Ask), 2015 ABA J. Leg. Prof.  75 (2015); Does LegalZoom Have First Amendment Rights?:  Some Thoughts About Freedom of Speech and the Unauthorized Practice of Law, 20 Temple Pol. &  Civil Rights Law. Rev. 255 (2011), Creating Attorney-Client Relationships by Giving Legal Advice On-Line, 16 St. John's J. Leg. Comm. 569 (2002); Scriveners in Cyberspace: Online Document Preparation and the Unauthorized Practice of Law, 30 Hofstra L. Rev. 811 (2002); Attorney Client Relationships in Cyberspace: The Peril And The Promise, 49 Duke L.J.  147 (1999); Government Lawyers in Civil Litigation and the Rules of Professional Conduct, 1997 Prof. Law. 125 (1997); and The Duty of Zealous Advocacy and the Ethics of the Federal Government Lawyer:  The Three Hardest Questions, 64 S.Cal. L. Rev. 951 (1991);

Lanctot previously served as the faculty advisor to the Villanova Law Review.

Practice Experience

• Law Clerk to the Hon. Murray M. Schwartz of the United States District Court of Delaware (1981-1982)  
  
• Associate, Washington, DC office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld
• Trial Attorney, Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC
• Assistant Branch Director for Government Information, Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
• Joined the Villanova Law faculty in 1988