Jason ("Jay") Canavan

Chief Counsel of the Wharton School & Associate General Counsel of the University

Executive Director, General Manager, and Legal Representative of Penn-Wharton China Center
Corporate Secretary of UPenn International

Phone: (215) 573-3811 
Email: jay.canavan@ogc.upenn.edu

Jason ("Jay") Canavan joined Penn’s Office of General Counsel in January 2020 as a generalist attorney; in 2022, he was appointed Chief Counsel of the Wharton School, where he works closely with Wharton’s leadership on all legal and compliance matters.

Mr. Canavan also supports the broader university with respect to governance issues and its management of complex litigation, inquiries, and investigations—including with respect to certain civil rights, antitrust, and federal regulatory matters. He also serves as Corporate Secretary to UPenn International (the subsidiary through which Penn conducts most of its international activities) and as Executive Director, General Manager, and Legal Representative of the Penn-Wharton China Center.

Before joining Penn, Mr. Canavan was Associate University Counsel at Cornell University, where he advised on all of Cornell’s international activities and served as in-house counsel for Cornell’s Office of University Investments.  Prior to his work at Cornell, Mr. Canavan held a variety of roles at UBS Investment Bank, most recently as Head of Legal (Americas) for M&A, and was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where he worked on a wide variety of corporate, sovereign, and non-profit corporate governance and securities law matters.

Mr. Canavan graduated from Cornell University (B.A. in Government, German Studies, and Comparative Literature, magna cum laude, 2004), where he was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree from Columbia Law School (J.D., 2007), where he was named a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. 

He is admitted to practice in both New York and Pennsylvania, and is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), where he is a frequent speaker and an active member of the NACUANOTES Editorial Board.

Support Staff:

Kelly Sklodowski
Executive Assistant
Phone: (215) 746-5225
Fax: (215) 746-5301/5222
kelly.sklodowski@pennmedicine.upenn.edu  

Area of Practice:

  • Civil Rights
  • Compliance
  • Governance
  • Non-Discrimination
  • Student, Faculty & General University Affairs
  • Wharton