Guter was commissioned into the Navy via Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps in 1970. Originally a surface warfare officer, Guter transferred to the Judge Advocate General's Corps in 1977 upon graduation from the Naval Justice School.[1][10] His first assignment was on the USS Sylvania (AFS-2) as a gunnery officer, administrative officer and legal officer consecutively from 1970 to 1973, with more than 30 months of overseas deployment to the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas.[1][8] He was promoted to commander on January 8, 1985.[2]
Guter was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate General of the Navy on October 3, 1997 with a promotion to rear admiral effective October 1, 1997.[1][7] Under the 36th judge advocate general, Rear Admiral John Hutson, he acted as JAG in the former's absence and dual-hatted as commander of the Naval Legal Service Command, oversaw the 13 major legal offices and 45 branch offices charged with prosecuting and defending service members in criminal cases.[8]
He relinquished the office to his deputy, Rear Admiral Michael F. Lohr on June 28, 2002.[14]
Academic career
After retirement, Guter became chief executive officer of the Vinson Hall Corporation, a nonprofit continuing care retirement community, from August 2002 to July 2005, and a member of the board of trustees of the Navy Marine Coast Guard Residence Foundation in support of the former role.[8] He was among several retired JAGs to protest congressional efforts to evade the Supreme Court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.[13] He testified against the suspension of habeas corpus of Guantanamo Bay detainees at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2007, stating that "habeas corpus is the basis for a civilized legal system" and that Guantanamo, as an example of its absence, "shows us what can happen with an unchecked power".[9]
In April 2005, it was announced that Guter would replace Nick Cafardi as dean of his alma mater, the Duquesne University School of Law.[15][16] As dean, Guter updated Bar exam preparatory services, sought greater involvement from the school's 6500 alumni and recruited Professor Jan M. Levine as the school's first full-time legal research and writing director.[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][17] Guter remained at Duquesne as a law professor until the end of the academic year.[12][8][18] The dismissal sparked protests from the student population.[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".[21] He assumed office on August 1, 2009.[21][22]