Susanna Ripken

Susanna Kim Ripken is the William P. Foley II Professor of Corporate Law at Chapman University Fowler School of Law. She also holds a joint appointment at the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She teaches business law courses and has received the “Professor of the Year Award” from the student body multiple times. Professor Ripken has also earned the University Faculty Excellence Award, the Valerie Scudder Award for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service, and the Michael Lang Award for scholarly excellence. She is the author of several scholarly works on corporate and securities law, including the book, Corporate Personhood (Cambridge University Press 2019). 

Prior to joining the faculty at Chapman in the spring of 1997, Professor Ripken practiced as a transactional attorney in the corporate department of the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. At the firm, she handled corporate and securities transactions for large corporations and business entities. 

Professor Ripken is a graduate of Stanford University, where she was selected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with distinction. She studied at Oxford University in England as a member of the Stanford-in-Oxford program and received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law. She served as editor of the UCLA Law Review and graduated with membership in the Order of the Coif.  After law school, Professor Ripken clerked for the Honorable Robert Boochever on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Professor Ripken is a member of the Association of American Law Schools Business Associations and Securities Law Sections, the American Bar Association, the California Lawyers Association Business Law Section and the Orange County Bar Association.  Professor Ripken is admitted to practice in California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Courses Taught:

Corporations, Agency & Partnership, Securities Regulation, Advanced Corporate Seminar in Corporate Ethics and Legal Practice, Professional Responsibility, Externship Seminar

List of Scholarly Publications