New Business Law Professorship Named for Dean Emerita; Professor George K. Foster Holds Title

The Jennifer J. Johnson Business Law Professorship honors the decade of leadership of Emerita Dean Johnson. The professorship reinforces the law school’s commitment to advancing the field of business law, ethics and integrity. Professor George K. Foster will hold the new professorship title.

Generous contributions of alumni and friends of the law school funded the professorship. The professorship acknowledges Johnson’s significant impact on the school, which includes raising over $57 million, growing the law school’s endowment by 52.7%, establishing 64 new scholarships, and directing several critical infrastructure projects. Those projects include the renovation of the Gantenbein Building, Boley Law Library, Wood Hall, the McCarty classrooms, and the creation of an Advocacy Center and the Matt Bergman teaching courtroom.

As the first Jennifer J. Johnson Business Law Professor, Professor Foster brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this role. Prior to joining academia, he served as a partner of international law firm Dechert LLP in its New York office. He represented clients in litigation and arbitration cases around the world, and advised clients on trade compliance and transactional matters associated with foreign investments. Many of his cases involved sovereign states as parties, including several investment treaty arbitrations before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Professor Foster has been a faculty member since 2009, and his courses include Business Associations I and II, International Business Transactions, International Dispute Resolution, and International Investment Law. His scholarship focuses on legal issues surrounding foreign investment, sovereign immunity, international arbitration, and the rights of Indigenous peoples. His work has been cited in various federal court decisions and placed in such journals as the William and Mary Law Review, the American University Law Review, and the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.

In addition to his experience and expertise, Professor Foster’s background includes a JD from UCLA School of Law, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs. He also previously taught at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law as an adjunct professor of International Business Transactions from 2003-2005.