AUSTIN J RITER portrait
  • Adjunct Professor, College Of Law - Dean
  • Adjunct Professor, College Of Law

Biography

Austin Riter is a shareholder with the law firm of Parr Brown Gee & Loveless in Salt Lake City, Utah.  He represents clients in a wide array of complex business and commercial litigation matters, including First Amendment, employment, intellectual property, appellate, contract, tort, real property, securities, and other general business disputes.  He has particular expertise in First Amendment and media litigation, including open records laws, access to court proceedings, defamation, and privacy; and in public and private employment law, including employment contracts and policies and procedures, employee misconduct, investigations, termination and discipline, and civil rights disputes.
 
Mr. Riter received his B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from Yale University in 2003 and went on to receive his J.D. degree, with Highest Honors, in 2007 from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he was awarded Order of the Coif and Leary Scholar academic designations and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Utah Law Review.
 
Mr. Riter is a periodic lecturer and commentator on federal courts and media and employment law-related issues.  He also dedicates a significant portion of his practice to pro bono legal work, including helping to staff the Utah Freedom of Information Hotline at Parr Brown, which provides free legal assistance to Utah journalists; representing plaintiffs in civil rights and wrongful conviction cases; and serving as a Utah Private Guardian ad Litem.  Before joining Parr Brown, Mr. Riter served as a judicial law clerk to Honorable Paul G. Cassell, U.S. District Judge for the U.S. District of Utah; the Honorable Jennifer W. Elrod, U.S. Circuit Court Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; and the Honorable Milan D. Smith, Jr., U.S. Circuit Court Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.