Chapman University has named Paul Paton dean of the Dale E. Fowler School of Law. Paton is currently professor of law and ethics at the University of Alberta, Canada, he assumes the deanship from interim Dean Marisa Cianciarulo on June 30, 2023.

Paton is a first-generation student and lawyer, receiving his undergraduate degree, as well as his law degree, from the University of Toronto. He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Cambridge University where he studied under Sir Christopher Greenwood, the renowned barrister and former British judge at the International Court of Justice. Paton also holds a JSM and JSD from Stanford Law School which he earned under the tutelage of legal ethics and leadership education innovator Deborah Rhode.

Prior to his recent appointment at Fowler School of Law Paton enjoyed a storied academic career. From a humble start at the University of Toronto where he first directed an undergraduate arts and sciences program, he went on to become a professor at Queen’s University Faculty of Law in 2004, taking over the leadership of its international law program in England. Paton was recruited in 2008 by the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law to direct its Ethics Across the Professions initiative; he would later serve as University of the Pacific’s first vice-provost, serving all three campuses in northern California.

Paton’s academic foci include legal ethics, comparative regulation of the profession, professional responsibility, corporate governance and ethics in corporate contexts. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in both Canadian and U.S. law journals including the Fordham Law Review, the Stanford Journal of Law, as well as the ABA Journal, to list a few. Paton has also been named as visiting scholar at the University of Connecticut Law School as well as the American Bar Foundation, addressing annual meetings of state bar organizations, the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and the International Bar Association. Paton received the 2017 Leaders in Diversity Award from the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers after a nomination received from his students.

We look forward to Dean Paton’s arrival at the school in June and extend our warmest Fowler School of Law welcome to him.