Richard Leiter is the Director of the Schmid Law Library and Professor of Law. Although he assumed his current position in 2000, he had worked on the UNL law library staff years ago (1986-1988) as Public Services Librarian. He earned his undergraduate degree (with honors) in 1976 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his J.D. in 1981 from Southwestern University School of Law, where he was an editor of the law review, and his MLIS in 1986 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Before coming to the College of Law, he was Associate Dean of Information Technology & Services and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. and Library Director and Associate Professor at Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Prior to that he held various positions in both law firm and academic libraries on both coasts.

Professor Leiter has written widely on law library, legal research, and legal information technology issues. His most recent book, National Survey of State Laws, now in its eighth edition, is widely held by library reference collections and was named An Outstanding Resource by the New York Public Library. The seventh edition, published by WM S Hein & Co., Inc was released in January 2016 along with a database that contains all editions. In 2003 it won the prestigious Andrews Bibliographical Award from the American Association of Law Libraries and has been cited three times by the United States Supreme Court. He also recently published Landmark Supreme Court Cases, 2d Editions, which he co-authored with his friend and mentor, Professor Roy Mersky of the University of Texas Tarlton Law Library. He also has published, with Roy Mersky, two editions of a reader on law librarianship called, Spirit of Law Librarianship. 

He is an active scholar and has contributed to books, the Law Library Journal and numerous other law library publications. Professor Leiter is also the co-founder of the Spirit of Law Librarianship Award for Public Service, an award founded in 1991 that recognizes law librarians for their work serving their communities. The award was originally funded by royalties from the book, Spirit of Law Librarianship, a widely regarded reader in law librarianship, now in its second edition. 

In 2014 Prof. Leiter was named to the Fastcase 50, in recognition of his pioneering work in citation analysis for use in online legal database search algorithms. In 2012 he was included as one of the Top 50 Law Professors Who Use Twitter. For many years he hosted an irregular podcast, Law Librarian Conversations.