Orono – The University of Maine System (UMS) has named Paul Chan to serve as its next General Counsel. As chief legal officer, Chan will oversee the attorneys and staff who provide comprehensive legal services to all seven UMS Universities and system administration. Chan will be at UMS beginning December 1.
Chan comes to UMS from the University of Denver (DU) where he served as the Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and General Counsel for over 20 years. At DU, he oversaw all aspects of the school’s legal affairs, including advising the Chancellor, Board of Trustees, and other key administrators. Prior to joining DU, he was Deputy of Administration for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Chan’s undergraduate degree is from DU, where he also received his secondary school teacher’s certification. He earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
“This is a critical position for the University and the Board of Trustees, so we are thrilled to have someone of Chan’s integrity, experience and expertise on our management team,” said Chancellor Dannel Malloy. “He is not only an accomplished attorney and skilled higher education administrator, but he has been deeply engaged in his community and is widely respected and involved nationally.”
Chan is a past president of the Colorado Bar Association, where he was the first Asian Pacific American attorney to hold that position in the Association’s 125-year history. He was also president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the nation’s largest Asian Pacific American membership organization representing over 60,000 attorneys across the nation.
Chan has served on numerous commissions and advisory boards for the Colorado Supreme Court, the Governor of Colorado, the Mayor of Denver, and Denver Public Schools. He has also served as a trustee of the Boettcher Foundation, one of Colorado’s oldest and largest charitable foundations, and he has volunteered with numerous other nonprofit organizations.
“I am very excited to join the University of Maine System in serving the students and the State of Maine, and I look forward to working with Chancellor Malloy, the Board of Trustees, and the System’s many dedicated leaders in advancing the success of Maine’s seven public universities,” said Chan.
Chan takes over the post from Interim General Counsel Patricia Peard. Peard, a University of Maine School of Law alum and recognized civil rights and education lawyer, is a former partner with the Berstein Shur law firm in Portland. She agreed to come out of retirement last year to work with UMS. “We are extremely grateful for Pat’s exceptional commitment and service to UMS,” said Chancellor Malloy.
Chan and his wife, Alesia McCloud, a native of East Tennessee, are recent empty nesters. Their son, David, is a graduate student in computer sciences, and their younger son, Andrew, works with a venture capital firm in San Francisco.
For questions or more information, please contact Margaret Nagle, Interim Executive Director of Communications for the University of Maine and the University of Maine System.
About the University of Maine System
Established in 1968, the University of Maine System (UMS) unites seven Maine’s distinctive public universities, comprising 10 campuses and numerous centers, in the common purpose of providing quality higher education while delivering on its traditional tripartite mission of teaching, research, and public service.
In 2020 UMS became the first and only statewide enterprise of public higher education in the country to transition to a unified accreditation for the system. Much different than a merger or consolidation, unified accreditation is a new operating model for the University of Maine System that removes the primary barrier to inter-institutional collaboration.
A comprehensive public institution of higher education, UMS serves more than 30,000 students annually and is supported by the efforts of more than 2,000 full-time and part-time faculty, more than 3,000 regular full-time and part-time staff, and a complement of part-time temporary (adjunct) faculty.
Reaching more than 500,000 people annually through educational and cultural offerings, the University of Maine System also benefits from more than two-thirds of its alumni population residing within the state; more than 123,000 individuals.
The System consists of seven main campuses: The University of Maine (UMaine), including its regional campus the University of Maine at Machias (UMaine Machias); the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA); the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF); the University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK), the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI); and the University of Southern Maine (USM). The System also includes a UMA campus in Bangor, USM campuses in Gorham and Lewiston-Auburn, the University of Maine School of Law, and the University of Maine Graduate and Professional Center.
Please follow these links to the UMS Logo, UMS and individual university style guides and an image and biographical information for Chancellor Malloy.
