Paul Paton

Paul D. Paton is the Thomas Lawlor QC Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Alberta, a Chair he took up following a five year term as Dean of Law (2014-19). Recognized internationally as an expert in legal ethics, the regulation of lawyers, and corporate governance, he has taught and published in both Canada and the United States. He received his B.A. in international relations from the University of Toronto (Moss Scholar), an M.Phil in international relations from the University of Cambridge, an LL.B. from the University of Toronto, and J.S.M. and J.S.D. degrees from Stanford Law. He clerked at the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992-93, and practiced as a litigation partner in a major Canadian law firm, as Justice and Social Policy Advisor to the Premier of Ontario, and as in-house counsel to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP before becoming a professor of law full time at Queen's University in 2004 and at Pacific McGeorge in California in 2008, where he was university Vice Provost in 2012-13. Professor Paton served two terms as Chair of the Canadian Bar Association's national Ethics and Professional Regulation Committee, was Reporter to the American Bar Association's Ethics 20/20 Commission from 2010-2013, was a Presidential appointment to the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Regulation (2020-2023) and has served as an officer of the International Bar Association's Alternative and New Law Business Structures Committee since 2020.

Amongst numerous publications in academic journals and chapters in published volumes, Professor Paton is co-author and co-editor of Business Organizations: Practice, Theory and Emerging Challenges 2nd ed. (Emond Montgomery, 2018), and co-author of Global Issues in Legal Ethics 2nd ed. (West, 2014). He received a Distinguished Service Award from the Ontario Bar Association in 2014, the Robert VA Jones award from the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association in 2019, and was appointed Queen's Counsel (now King's Counsel) in Alberta in 2020. He is a member of the Bars of Ontario and Alberta.