Jay A. Mitchell (BA ’80) specializes in the areas of corporate law, finance, and commercial transactions. He joined the law school in 2007 to launch and direct the Organizations and Transactions Clinic, which helps prepare students for corporate practice. His research focuses on the application of information, document, and graphic design principles to legal documents; clinical and transactional skills teaching; and sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Before joining Stanford Law School, Professor Mitchell spent nearly 15 years as chief corporate counsel and a member of the legal and finance senior management teams at Levi Strauss & Co., where he was responsible for stockholder, finance, governance, disclosure and commercial transaction matters. Mitchell also is a former senior corporate counsel at ALZA Corporation, former partner and associate with Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, and an associate with Arnold & Porter. Early in his career, he clerked for Judge John Lewis Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Throughout his career, Mitchell has worked on a broad array of corporate and commercial matters in the United States and Europe, including acquisitions, bank and bond financings, recapitalizations, stockholder and voting agreements, raw material supply and contract manufacturing agreements, outsourcing agreements, trademark licenses, product technology agreements, joint ventures, financial reporting and retail relations and antitrust compliance, among others.