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

Jay Canavan joined Penn’s Office of General Counsel in January 2020 and serves as Chief Counsel of the Wharton School, advising Wharton leadership across its academic, research, international, employment, student, faculty, commercial, and philanthropic activities.

Mr. Canavan also advises University leadership with respect to board and committee governance, crisis management, international activities, and complex litigation, inquiries, and investigations—including significant civil rights, antitrust, cybersecurity, and federal regulatory matters.  He serves as immigration counsel to the University’s International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS), Corporate Secretary of UPenn International (the subsidiary through which Penn conducts most of its global activities), and 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 Cornell’s international matters and served as in-house counsel to Cornell’s Office of University Investments.  Prior to his work in higher education, Mr. Canavan was Head of Legal for M&A (Americas) at UBS Investment Bank and an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where he advised corporations, sovereign entities, nonprofit organizations, boards, and senior corporate management on corporate governance, securities, and transactional matters.

Mr. Canavan graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University in 2004, with degrees in Government, German Studies, and Comparative Literature, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2007, where he was a James Kent Scholar and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. 

He is admitted to practice in 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 serves on 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
• Immigration and International
• Non-Discrimination
• Student, Faculty & General University Affairs
• Wharton