Michael Dorff, a dynamic leader in legal education and authority in corporate law, has joined UCLA School of Law as the executive director of the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy.

At the Lowell Milken Institute, Dorff will oversee the law school’s hub of scholarship and programming in business and corporate law, securities law, and taxation. The 13-year-old institute, founded by UCLA Law alumnus Lowell Milken ’73, is home to an expert faculty that engages in cutting-edge scholarship and regularly testifies before congressional committees and advises other government bodies; the Business Law Specialization for students who want to pursue a career in corporate law; the annual Lowell Milken Institute-Sandler Prize for New Entrepreneurs business-plan competition, with thousands of dollars in prizes; and other signature events that bring members of the broader business and legal community to UCLA Law to network or discuss developments in the field.

Dorff steps into the position following the retirement of Joel Feuer, the institute’s longtime executive director.

“The Lowell Milken Institute has built incredible programs, leveraging Lowell Milken’s generous support and UCLA’s world-class thought leaders on tax and business policy throughout campus,” Dorff says. “I feel immensely privileged to succeed Joel Feuer as executive director, continuing his legacy of serving UCLA’s students and faculty and the business and tax law community.”

A Los Angeles native, Dorff previously worked as a professor at Southwestern Law School for more than 20 years. There, he directed the Technology Law and Entrepreneurship Program and held the Michael and Jessica Downer Endowed Chair, which enabled him to hone the corporate law curriculum and build partnerships with leading firms and institutions. His scholarship focuses on executive compensation and social enterprise, among a range of issues related to corporate governance. He has written two books, Becoming a Public Benefit Corporation: Express Your Values, Energize Stakeholders, Make the World a Better Place (Stanford University Press, 2023) and Indispensable and Other Myths: Why the CEO Pay Experiment Failed and How to Fix It (University of California Press, 2014).

A graduate of Harvard College, Dorff earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He clerked for Judge Levin H. Campbell on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, worked in corporate litigation at major law firms in Houston and New York, started his academic career as a professor at Rutgers Law School in Camden, New Jersey, and has twice been a visiting professor at UCLA Law, teaching business law.

“The decisions that businesses make shape our work lives, our consumption patterns, and even our health and longevity in profound ways. The business and tax laws that influence those decisions are therefore incredibly important,” Dorff says. “The institute is ideally equipped to study and engage in these exciting developments, and it’s a real thrill for me to take part.”