Peter B. "Bo" Rutledge

Peter B. "Bo" Rutledge holds the Talmadge Chair of Law.

From 2015 through 2024, he served as dean of the University of Georgia School of Law. Over that decade, he steered the law school to be one of the nation’s best returns on investment in legal education. During Rutledge’s deanship, the law school set multiple fundraising records – including several of the largest gifts in law school history – and eclipsed its goal during the Commit to Georgia Campaign. By the time Rutledge stepped down, he had raised nearly $90 million in new commitments, and the overall value of the School of Law’s endowment had more than doubled. Much of this funding was poured into student support which, coupled with a near-complete tuition freeze, has reduced student indebtedness by almost 55% since 2013 and more than doubled the percentage of J.D. students obtaining their legal education debt free. Curricular and other innovations during Rutledge’s deanship included an overhaul of the first-year curriculum, the rollout of a new undergraduate minor, the development of a nationally recognized mentorship program, the creation of several new law clinics funded by public/private partnerships, the establishment of several compressed dual degrees and the build-out of several online programs. These and other innovations helped to produce nationally recognized outcomes like the country’s highest employment rate for the J.D. Class of 2021, Ultimate Bar Passage Rates hovering around 99% and a decade-long defense of the highest first-time bar exam pass rate in Georgia. This return-on-investment strategy has been recognized in a variety of media, including Reuters and Bloomberg, and the school has been rated the nation’s #1 Best Value in legal education by National Jurist for five of the past seven years. The School of Law recently posted, and defended, its highest U.S. News & World Report ranking in history (#20 overall and #7 among publics). At the time he stepped down, Rutledge was the fifth-longest-serving public law school dean in the United States and was considered one of the most influential people in legal education. In recognition of his commitment to first-generation college graduates, one of the law school’s marquee scholarships for this cohort of students was named in his family’s honor.

Prior to his appointment as dean, Rutledge served as the associate dean for faculty development working closely with the law school's faculty, especially its untenured professors, to expand and promote scholarly and research activities.

He is the author of the book Arbitration and the Constitution and co-author with Gary Born of the book International Civil Litigation in United States Courts. His works have been published by the Yale University Press, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press, and his articles have appeared in a diverse array of journals such as The University of Chicago Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review and the Journal of International Arbitration. He also regularly advises parties on matters of international dispute resolution (litigation and arbitration).

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court appointed Rutledge to brief and argue the case Irizarry v. United States as amicus curiae in defense of the judgment below. He subsequently won the case, joining the ranks of a select few advocates who have successfully defended a judgment below when the government refused to do so. Notably, he has served as a judicial clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III.

Given his interest in international dispute resolution, Rutledge has taught and spoken at numerous foreign universities. In 2010-11, he was a Fulbright Professor at the Institut für Zivilverfahrensrecht at the University of Vienna Law School. Foreign universities where Rutledge has been invited to speak include: Oxford University, Cambridge University, the University of Mainz, Jagiellonian University, Stockholm University, the University of Oslo, the London School of Economics and the City University of Hong Kong.

An accomplished teacher, he has won numerous teaching awards, including the John C. O'Byrne Memorial Award for Contributions Furthering Student-Faculty Relations on three occasions, most recently in 2025. He has also received UGA’s First-Year Odyssey Seminar Program Teaching Award and the School of Law’s Distinguished Service Scroll Award. 

In addition to his academic and legal work, Rutledge remains active in professional circles. He has advised parties on matters of international dispute resolution and has served as an expert in both litigation and arbitration. He has filed more than 70 briefs in the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. He is a listed arbitrator with several international organizations. He has testified on several occasions before Congress on pending arbitration legislation, regularly spoken to broadcast and print media, and delivered speeches to a range of professional audiences on matters such as international dispute resolution, arbitration and the Supreme Court. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Society for the Rule of Law.

Before entering the teaching academy, Rutledge practiced at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering (now Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr), where his practice included international dispute resolution and Supreme Court matters, and at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where his practice concentrated on international arbitration.

He holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University, an M.Litt. in Applied Ethics from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) and a J.D. with high honors from the University of Chicago, where he served as executive editor of The University of Chicago Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.