The secretary of the Institute and general counsel is the president's interface with the Board of Trustees and coordinates all of the university's legal activities, is the president's legal adviser, and acts as the Institute's risk manager.

Charles Carletta has had a long relationship with Rensselaer, serving as a partner in the law firm of Pattison Sampson Ginsberg and Griffin, which for 76 years served as the Institute’s general counsel. Carletta has devoted most of his professional career to issues in higher education.

He is admitted to all the courts of the State of New York, the United States Court of Military Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Mr. Carletta is a nationally recognized speaker and writer on legal issues affecting colleges and universities. While in private practice, he served as general counsel to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Sage Colleges, The Albany College of Pharmacy, Hudson Valley Community College, and the Hudson-Mohawk Association of Colleges and Universities. He also acted as special counsel to other private and public two- and four-year institutions of higher education throughout the United States.

Mr. Carletta is one of the 11 members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) General Counsel – Advisory Board. He also maintains memberships in the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA), the National Association of College and University Attorneys, and recently appointed to the International Advisory Council at the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law. His other affiliations are: director of Genesis, Inc. (a Bermuda offshore insurance corporation of which Rensselaer is a part-owner; the Rensselaer representative to the Subscriber’s Committee of the Pinnacle Consortium of Higher Education (a VT Reciprocal Risk Retention Group); the volunteer counsel for The Approach and Beyond Foundations Inc.; director of the Rensselaer Newman Foundation; adjunct trustee at LaSalle Institute in Troy, NY, a director of Seton Health Systems (which owns and operates St. Mary’s Hospital in Troy, NY; and a director of both the Council on Economic Growth and the United Way of the Greater Captial Region.

Mr. Carletta is the author of a chapter in the book The Administration of Campus Discipline: Student, Organizational, and Community Issues. He lectures nationally for ASJA, the Stetson University College of Law at its Conference on Law and Higher Education, and for the University of Vermont’s Conference on Legal Issues in Higher Education as well as most national organizations responsible for issues in all aspects of higher education. Mr. Carletta has helped design and broadcast international live teleconferences on topics related to higher education including crisis management and public safety. He has also appeared extensively in video productions related to college legal issues.

Although trained as a prosecutor and defense trial attorney, Mr. Carletta dedicates his time to college issues including administration, intellectual property, government contracts, risk management, student affairs, public safety, and advancement. He has been honored for his contributions to higher education by Stetson University College of Law, the Association for Student Judicial Affairs, and the Hudson-Mohawk Association of Colleges and Universities.

Mr. Carletta received a B.A. from Manhattan College in 1966 and a Juris Doctor from the Albany Law School of Union University in 1969. He currently serves as a Trustee for LaSalle Institute and as a director for Seton Health System Incorporated both located in Troy, New York. He serves on the boards of two national insurance companies.