Michael Stokes Paulsen

Michael Stokes Paulsen (born April 24, 1959) is an American legal scholar.^[1] He is a professor and the Distinguished University Chair at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, and was previously the McKnight Presidential Professor of Law & Public Policy at the University of Minnesota Law School.^[2]

Paulsen was born on April 24, 1959. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Northwestern University in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) with distinction in economics, and then enrolled in the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he was selected for the Northwestern University Law Review.^[3] Paulsen later transferred to Yale University, where he dual enrolled in Yale Divinity School and Yale Law School.^[4]

As a student at Yale Law School, Paulsen was roommates with Akhil Amar, studied under Robert Bork, and served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.^[5] He received both his Master of Arts (M.A.) in religion and his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale in 1985.^[4] Paulsen also had been the student director of the recently established Federalist Society chapter at Yale Law School and the director of the Yale Moot Court.^[4]

In 1991, Paulsen became an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School; he was promoted to a full-time professorship in 1998. He was the university's Julius E. Davis Professor from 1998–1999, an associate dean from 2004–2007, and was appointed as the McKnight Presidential Professor of Law & Public Policy in 2004, serving in that position until 2007. In 2007, Paulsen became a professor of law and the Distinguished University Chair at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.^[4]

Paulsen regularly speaks at the Federalist Society.^[6]

Paulsen and his wife have two children.