Tammy Pettinato Oltz

Tammy Pettinato Oltz joined the Hamline faculty in 2024. Prior to joining Hamline, she spent over fifteen years as a faculty member or administrator at various law schools teaching courses such as Constitutional Law, Disability Law, Family Law, Employment Discrimination, Legal Research & Writing, and Law Practice Technology. She also spent seven years leading a law school library, including three years as an Assistant Dean.

Professor Oltz has published and presented widely on legal topics ranging from the implications of generative AI for access to justice to how legal education risks replicating pre-existing biases in the profession. She is currently working on projects related to the Fourteenth Amendment, Supreme Court citation practices, depictions of the law in literature, and using the law to improve educational outcomes for individuals with disabilities. A mother of three school-aged boys, including autistic twins, she is also particularly interested in how the law affects individuals with autism.

Professor Oltz earned her JD from Harvard Law School, her MSI from the University of Michigan School of Information, and her BA in English Literature, magna cum laude, from Gannon University in Erie, PA. She was a first-generation college student and law student and enjoys mentoring other first gens. Outside of work, Professor Oltz spends her time reading, playing chess, pursuing dual citizenship jus sanguinis with Italy, and lecturing her kids on the superiority of 1980s and 1990s aesthetics.