Lauren Schoenthaler

As Chief General Counsel, Lauren Schoenthaler oversees the legal affairs of the university in support of its missions and values. She is a direct report to the President and a member of his leadership cabinet. As Pacific’s chief legal officer, she engages collaboratively to move the institution forward fueled by innovation, determination, and entrepreneurial thinking.

Ms. Schoenthaler arrived at Pacific in October 2023, after a 22-year career at Stanford University. Over the course of her career at Stanford, she was the lead institutional lawyer for risk management and litigation, copyright, compliance, privacy, student affairs, international issues, libraries and archives, and police matters. Ms. Schoenthaler was also the inaugural Senior Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Access at Stanford overseeing the civil rights offices of the university, and a staff of more than 20.  

Ms. Schoenthaler is active in the legal community and speaks regularly on university legal matters ranging from Title IX to copyright. Early in her career, Ms. Schoenthaler clerked on both the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States District Court, Central District for Judge A. Wallace Tashima. She was an associate attorney at (now) Pillsbury Winthrop, and a Deputy District Attorney in Santa Clara County, California. She is a graduate of the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco (JD, magna cum laude), and Northwestern University (BA). A devout college athletics fan, she is excited to cheer on the Pacific Tigers.