Charles E. Cantú

Biography

Cantú is among the longest tenured Hispanic law professors in the country. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, teaching at the Universidad de René Gabriel Moreno in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. An engaged member of the San Antonio community, Cantú serves numerous civic organizations, including the boards of the Witte Museum, San Antonio Hospice and the Winston School. He served as dean of the School of Law for seven years, concluding his deanship in 2014.

As a dean, Cantú organized and conducted a summer entry program for potential first-year law students with low predictors. Cantú has raised significant contributions for the law school, most of which is marked for scholarships to attract the best and brightest students to the School of Law.

He introduced the subject of products liability into the curriculum, both as a course and as an advanced seminar. He is a founding member of The Scholar, a journal at the St. Mary’s University School of Law. Cantú also increased alumni participation through giving by establishing three new law alumni chapters in McAllen, Austin and El Paso.

In 2017, Cantú became an Of Counsel Attorney with the firm Davis, Cedillo & Mendoza, Inc.

• Fulbright Scholar, Universidad de René Gabriel Moreno, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 1966
• Visiting Faculty, South Texas College of Law, 1979-1980
• Visiting Faculty, University of Houston, 1971
• Member, Numerous Committees of the American Bar Association that conducted many inspections of accredited law schools
• Traveled around the globe in an effort to provide St. Mary’s students with networking and educational opportunities
• Former dean of the St. Mary’s School of Law, 2008-2014

Articles in a Periodical

Cantú has published numerous articles in law reviews, many of which relate to products liability.  He also contributed a chapter to a leading Texas treatise, Texas Torts and Remedies.  He writes in the areas of common law, statutory damages, products liability and Texas Deceptive Trade and Practices Act.

Dean Cantu’s recent articles include:

• Fattening Foods: Under Products Liability Litigation is the Big Mac Defective? 1 Food Law and Policy University of Arkansas 165 (2005).
• A Continuing Whimsical Search For the True Meaning Of the Term “Product” In Products Liability Litigation 35 St. Mary’s Law Journal 341 (2004).
• Distinguishing The Concept Of Strict Liability In Tort From Strict Products Liability: Medusa Unveiled, 33 University of Memphis Law Review 823 (2003).
• An Essay On the Tort Of Negligent Infliction Of Emotional Distress In Texas: Stop Saying It Does Not Exist, 33 St. Mary’s Law Journal 455 (2002).
• Observations On the Evolution Of Minorities In the Law; From Law School To Practice, 4 The Scholar St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues 185 (2002).
• The Useful Life Defense: Embracing The Idea That All Products Eventually Grow Old and Die, 80 Nebraska Law Review 1 (2001).
• Distinguishing The Concept of Strict Liability For Ultra Hazardous Activities From Strict Products Liability Under Section 402A Of The Restatement (Second) Of Torts: Two Parallel Lines Of Reasoning That Should Never Meet, 35 Akron Law Review 31 (2001).