Paul Brest

Bio

Paul Brest is Former Dean and Professor Emeritus (active), at Stanford Law School, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and co-director of the Stanford Law and Policy Lab. He was president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000-2012.

He is co-author of Money Well Spent: A Strategic Guide to Smart Philanthropy (2008),Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment (2010),and articles on constitutional law, philanthropy, and impact investing. His current courses include Problem Solving for Public Policy and Social Change, Measuring and Improving Social Impact, and Advanced Topics in Philanthropy and Impact Investing. He also is the instructor in an online course, Essentials of Nonprofit Strategy, offered by Philanthropy University.

Professor Brest is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holds honorary degrees from Northwestern University School of Law and Swarthmore College. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1969, he clerked for Judge Bailey Aldrich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Justice John M. Harlan of the U.S. Supreme Court, and did civil rights litigation with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in Mississippi.

Teaching

Degree Courses

2017-18

GSBGEN 319: Strategic Philanthropy and Impact Investing

The course will be structured around the perspective of a foundation or a high net worth individual who has decided to devote substantial resources to philanthropy and wishes to decide which philanthropic goals to pursue and how best to achieve...

GSBGEN 367: Problem Solving for Social Change

Stanford graduates will play important roles in solving many of today''s and tomorrow''s major societal problems -- such as improving educational and health outcomes, conserving energy, and reducing global poverty -- which call for actions by...

2016-17

GSBGEN 319: Strategic Philanthropy and Impact Investing

The course will be structured around the perspective of a high net worth individual who has decided to devote substantial resources to philanthropy and wishes to decide which philanthropic goals to pursue and how best to achieve them. Although...

GSBGEN 367: Problem Solving for Social Change

GSB graduates will play important roles in solving many of today''s and tomorrow''s major societal problems - such as improving educational and health outcomes, conserving energy, and reducing global poverty - which call for actions by nonprofit,...

In the Media

New Committee Appointed to Consider Principles on Historical Names

Stanford News, January 19, 2018

Insights by Stanford Business

writtenPaul Brest: Making Money While Doing Good

August 25, 2015

Social impact investing is changing the way philanthropy is done.