Chip Pitts

Chip Pitts is a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School. Considered one of the world’s “top academics on corporate responsibility,” he also serves as a Professor or Visiting Professor at other leading institutions in the West and Asia, where his teaching includes leadership, global governance, business and human rights, sustainability, and ethical globalization. Advisor to the UN Global Compact, he has led the Compact’s Good Practice Note project since its inception. Currently a board member of Bonn-based Fairtrade International, he is former Board President of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and former Chairman of Amnesty International USA.

Career

Pitts is an international attorney, human rights activist, businessman, and law educator who brings practical as well as academic experience to bear in lecturing on human rights and international business at law schools and universities including Stanford and Oxford.

Former Chief Legal Officer of Nokia, Inc. and partner at Baker & McKenzie law firm, Pitts has served as founding executive, entrepreneur, and investor in technology startups including Tellme Networks. Among awards Pitts has received are the Peacemaker of the Year award from the Dallas Peace Center, and the Dallas Bar Association's Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year award, in addition to other pro bono and outstanding service awards from various bar associations and other organizations. Recent pro bono litigation in which he has been involved includes EPIC’s successful lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration against the “naked body scanners,” as well as the Kiobel litigation to preserve the Alien Tort Statute as a corporate accountability remedy.