Sam Panarella was appointed to serve as the Dean of UMass Law in 2023. Prior to his deanship, Dean Panarella was a Professor of Law at University of Montana School of Law and the Executive Director of the Max Baucus Institute at the University of Montana. His research and teaching interests include energy, climate change, environmental, and business law. His recent scholarship appears in Harvard Environmental Law Review, Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum, UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, and University of Virginia Environmental Law Journal. Dean Panarella has extensive experience teaching and running legal programs in China and Europe.
Dean Panarella is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School. After law school, he served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Otto R. Skopil, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.