Donald Joseph Guter (born June 26, 1948)[1][2][3] is an American educator, lawyer and retired United States Navy rear admiral who was the 10th president and dean of South Texas College of Law Houston from 2009 to 2019.

[7] He served as a special legal counsel to Chief of Naval Operations Frank Kelso in the aftermath of the Tailhook scandal,[8] and was a notable opponent of the suspension of habeas corpus of Guantanamo Bay detainees under the George W. Bush administration.

[12] He protested the Bush administration's plans to convene special military commissions (without hearings before the Supreme Court) for Guantanamo Bay detainees in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, but was overruled.

[12] However, feuds with university president Charles J. Dougherty over the latter's refusal to grant tenure to school professor John Rago, despite having the faculty's favorable vote, ended in Guter's dismissal on December 10, 2008.

[6] In March 2009, Guter was named president and dean of the South Texas College of Law Houston, having previously sought a government job in Washington, D. C. after his dismissal.

[19][20] Guter stated that among his intentions as dean were to "increase the (college's) endowment" and "raise the school’s national profile, because South Texas isn’t very well known outside this part of the country".

[23] He departed the college the following month on August 1, 2019, relinquishing his post to Michael F. Barry, who previously served as assistant dean of St. Mary's University School of Law.