"The Notre Dame Law School is rooted in a tradition that weds the goal of professional competence with the added dimension of emphasizing the moral questions underlying the law. In a faculty and student body that represent a wide spectrum of religious backgrounds and political views, we do not always agree on the answers to these fundamental questions. We are united, however, in our efforts to raise these issues and to make them an integral part of our curriculum and scholarship."

Patricia A. O’Hara

Joseph A. Matson Dean
Professor of Law

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Office Number: 203 Law School
Telephone: 574.631.6789
Fax: 574.631.8400
Email: Patricia.A.O’Hara.3@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Julie Shook

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Patricia A. O’Hara was named the ninth dean of the Notre Dame Law School in 1999. She joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 1981 as an associate professor of law and achieved the rank of professor in 1990. In addition to her teaching and scholarship, she has served the University as its vice president for student affairs from 1990 to 1999. She earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Santa Clara University in 1971, and her J.D. summa cum laude from Notre Dame in 1974, graduating first in her class. Admitted to the California Bar in 1974, she worked as an associate with the San Francisco law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison (1974-79 and 1980-81).

Dean O’Hara’s areas of academic interest involve business-law subjects including agency and partnership, business planning, corporate finance, corporations and securities regulation.

Dean O’Hara is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admissions Council. During the 2005-2006 academic year, she will chair the Nominating Committee of the American Association of Law Schools. She is also a member of the Planning Committee for the American Bar Association’s seminar for new law school deans.

Dean O’Hara also serves as a member of the Lay Review Board for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend under the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People adopted by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Indiana Catholic Conference.

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About The Matson Chair

The Joseph A. Matson Chair in Law, established in 1988, is a gift from the estate of Sylvia F. Matson of Bolivar, New York, to endow the deanship of the Law School. Mrs. Matson, who died in 1985 at the age of 99, was the widow of Albert Matson, a Bolivar attorney with business interests in oil and gas. The chair honors the memory of the Matsons’ son, a 1942 graduate of the University who died in 1944 in an Air Force flight-training accident.

Book Segments

Churning Claims Under Federal Securities Law, in Contemporary Issues in Securities Regulation 325 (M. Steinberg ed., Butterworth Legal Publishers 1988).

Legal Aspects of Insider Trading, in Ethics and the Investment Industry 101 (John Houck and Rev. Oliver F. Williams, C.S.C., eds., Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business and University Press of America 1989).

Articles

The Elusive Concept of Control in Churning Claims Under Federal Securities and Commodities Law, 75 Georgetown Law Journal 1875 (1987); reprinted in 21 Securities Law Review 281 (1989).

Erosion of the Privity Requirement in Section 12(2) of the Securities Act of 1933: The Expanded Meaning of Seller, 31 UCLA Law Review 921 (1984); cited in Pinter v. Dahl, 486 U.S. 622, 648 n. 24 (1988).