Paul Chander

Lecturer in Law
Last Updated: February 9, 2024

Paul Chander is a commercial and constitutional litigator at Baker McKenzie. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, including securities, antitrust, and contract disputes, as well as government investigations and enforcement actions. Chander also maintains an active pro bono practice focused on constitutional law, which has resulted in victories to advance civil rights and voting rights.

Chander clerked for three judges at the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, including Hon. David Sotelo, Hon. Dennis J. Landín, and Hon. Craig D. Karlan. He began his legal career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Center for Community-Based Enterprise in Detroit, Mich., where he provided transactional legal services to small businesses to promote community economic development. Before law school, Chander worked as a field organizer for the Obama-Biden campaign in Ohio.

Outside of practice, Chander serves on the boards of various organizations devoted to legal education and reform. He is the Judicial Evaluations co-chair of the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California; the Constitution in the Classroom chair of the American Constitution Society – Los Angeles Lawyer Chapter; and a member of the California Lawyers Association, Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section.

Chander’s academic interests include political economy and constitutional law. His articles have been published in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog, and Law360. At USC Gould, he teaches “Law and the U.S. Constitution in Global History.”

Chander earned his JD from Columbia Law School, where he was a Tony Patiño Fellow and a Lowenstein Fellow. He received his BA with honors from UCLA, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, awarded the Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship, and granted the Distinguished Senior Award.