President-Elect, Executive Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer
Matt Parlow currently serves as the Executive Vice President, Chief Advancement Officer, and Parker S. Kennedy Chair in Law at Chapman University. In December 2024, he was named Chapman’s next president, effective Sept. 2, 2025.
As the EVP/CAO, Matt oversees an award-winning and diverse team of more than 200 team members responsible for development, strategic marketing, communications, career services, athletics, special events, and the Hilbert Museum of California Art. Under Matt’s leadership, Chapman set a fundraising record with more than $72 million raised during the 2022-23 academic year. In addition, in February 2023, Chapman launched the public phase of Inspire: The Campaign for Chapman University—a $500 million comprehensive campaign, the largest and most ambitious campaign in the university’s history.
Prior to his current role, Matt served as Dean and the Donald P. Kennedy Chair in Law of Chapman’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law. As the law school’s second longest-serving dean, Matt brought the Fowler School of Law to financial stability while at the same time matriculating the strongest and most diverse classes in its history and achieving three consecutive years of record graduate employment. His fundraising also led to the establishment of several new professorships; created scholarship funds to increase access for students from underrepresented groups; and supported expansion of key curricular areas to spur innovation and student success.
Previously, Matt was the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School, where he taught Property, Land Use, and Professional Sports Law (with Major League Baseball Commissioner Emeritus Bud Selig). Prior to that, he served on the faculty at the Fowler School of Law from 2005-08. Matt was voted the Professor of the Year during his time at both Marquette Law School and the Fowler School of Law. Prior to his academic career, Matt was an associate with the Los Angeles firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and served as a law clerk for the Honorable Pamela Ann Rymer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Matt holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A., magna cum laude, in History from Loyola Marymount University.
Matt has also served on the board of directors of several non-profit organizations and has been appointed to a number of local and state government task forces. In addition, he serves as a consultant to professional sports leagues and teams, and advises local, state, and national officials on a variety of political, legal, and policy matters. Matt has been a leader in the legal academy in serving as the Chair of both the State and Local Government Law and the Sports Law sections of the Association of American Law Schools and on accreditation teams for the American Bar Association. His scholarship has appeared in the Colorado Law Review, Oklahoma Law Review, and Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law among other journals.
