Matthew J. Parlow, a nationally respected legal scholar with roots in Southern California, has been selected the new dean of Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law. He’ll start July 1, succeeding Thomas J. Campbell, dean of the law school since 2011. Campbell is taking on the role of full-time professor at Fowler Law.
Parlow returns to Chapman after serving as associate dean for academic affairs at Marquette University Law School, where he has taught for the past seven years. He served on the Chapman law faculty from 2005 to 2008. He has also been a visiting professor at Yale University and a fellow at Loyola Marymount University.
“Returning to Chapman is a special and exciting opportunity,” Parlow said. “The law school has made tremendous strides in its first 20 years, and is poised now for even greater success.”
Parlow’s nationally recognized expertise in land use and urban redevelopment, passion for sports law and tenure as associate dean at Marquette highlight the quality academic and administrative experience he will bring to the dean’s role, said Daniele Struppa, Chapman chancellor and president-designate.
“In addition to a great legal mind, he brings a wealth of experience with colleagues throughout Southern California. We anticipate he will build even more bridges between Chapman and the Southland legal and business communities, helping to educate and place our practice-ready graduates,” Struppa said.
“The law school has made tremendous strides in its first 20 years, and is poised now for even greater success.” – MATTHEW J. PARLOW
Following a national search, Parlow was selected by a Chapman committee that included Reginald Gilyard, dean of the Argyros School of Business; Thomas Phelps, co-founder of Manatt Phelps, an international law firm; Parker Kennedy, chairman and chief executive officer of First American Financial Corporation; and Wylie Aitken, president and founding partner of Aitken, Aitken & Cohn.
In the five years of Campbell’s tenure as dean, the Fowler School enacted a broad practice-ready curricular overhaul, created a new Business Law Emphasis program, and received a landmark $55 million gift from Dale E. Fowler ’58 and his wife, Ann, which named the school.
“We are delighted to welcome Matt Parlow back to Chapman University and the Fowler School of Law,” said Chapman President Jim Doti. “His expertise in legal affairs, coupled with teaching skills that earned him awards at both Chapman and Marquette, only begin to hint at the strengths he’ll bring to the law school.”
Darling Foundation Gift Names Law Library
For more than a decade, the Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation has been a major supporter of Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, and in particular the school’s law library. Recently the Foundation added a gift of $2.78 million, bringing its total law library gifts to $5 million. Chapman is rec- ognizing this generosity by naming the law library in honor of Hugh and Hazel Darling.
The gift will be invested in a permanent endowment, with income to go to the Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Librarian Chair, which is currently held by Professor Linda Kawaguchi.
“We continue to be immensely grateful to the Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation
for their ongoing and generous support of the Fowler School of Law, its programs and its library,” said Tom Campbell, dean of Fowler Law. “The law library is at the heart of a law school, the nexus of its knowledge and scholarship. There could be no more appropriate names to associate with our law library than those of Hugh and Hazel Darling.”
The law school plans a special ceremony in March to dedicate the Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library. In honor of the endowed chair, a bronze sculpture of Sir Winston Churchill will be commissioned to inspire Chapman students and visitors. Churchill was a hero to Hugh Darling.
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