Michael H. Dessent

Professor of Law
Dean Emeritus

J.D. Northwestern University
[cum laude, Order of the Coif]
B.S. Northwestern University [business]

Courses Taught: Contracts I & II,
Business Organizations, Enterprise Law, Internship Seminar

Professor and Dean Emeritus Dessent fulfilled a variety of leadership roles and has represented some of the leading businesses in the United States throughout a distinguished legal career. Dean Dessent has held several senior executive and directorship positions for publicly traded corporations, typically as Executive Vice-President and General Counsel. As Chief Executive Officer of California Western School of Law for 1986-96, he directed the institution into the forefront of legal education. He and his wife have served on a number of boards of charitable entities in San Diego.

Selected Publications

• ENTERPRISE LAW (Casebook) (2d ed, 2005).
• FIRST YEAR CONTRACT LAW (Including Legal History and Judicial Philosophy) - Cases, Questions & Notes (3d ed, 2005).
• "Browse-Wraps, Click-Wraps and Cyber Law, Our Shrinking (WRAP) World," 15 Thomas Jefferson Law Review 1 (2003).
• "Digital Handshakes in Cyberspace Under E-Sign: There's a New Sheriff in Town," University of Richmond Law Review (2002).
• "Weapons to Fight Insider Trading in the 21st Century: A Call for the Repeal of Section 16(b)," Akron School of Law Law Review (2000).
• CALIFORNIA CORPORATION LAW (3-volume practice guide for attorneys) (1979).

mdessent@cwsl.edu  
619-525-7070
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101

Publications