PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania Law School adds to its growing corporate-law program with the creation of the Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professorship of Business Law and the associated Fox Endowed Research Fund. This is the largest single gift establishing a chair in the history of Penn.

The distinguished chair, the most prestigious form of endowed professorship at Penn, was created through a $4 million gift from the Winding Way Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation Endowment Fund in honor of Saul A. Fox, a 1978 graduate of the Law School and a member of its Board of Overseers. The purpose of the gift is to enrich the academic resources of the Penn Law School. The Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor will hold a primary appointment to the faculty of the Law School and a secondary appointment to the faculty of Penn Wharton School.

Saul A. Fox has participated in academic symposia and has lectured frequently at Penn Law School and at Wharton where his late father, Jerome Fox of the Philadelphia accounting firm Gelrod Fox & Company, pursued studies after World War II.

Saul Fox is chief executive officer of Fox Paine & Company LLC, a private equity investment firm he formed with Dexter Paine in 1997 in Foster City, Calif. He began his career as a tax attorney with the law firm Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles. He then joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in San Francisco in 1984 and was made a general partner in 1990. A Philadelphia native, Fox earned his undergraduate degree from Temple University in 1975.

In accepting the gift, Law School Dean Michael A. Fitts noted Fox dedication to the future of Penn Law School: "Time and again, Saul Fox has demonstrated his commitment to assuring the finest quality of legal education for Penn students. This gift, made in his honor, is a fitting tribute to Saul career which is the interprofessional model of the modern Penn Law graduate."

Judith Rodin, Penn president, commended the Winding Way Foundation for its recognition of Fox dedication to Penn: "In his philanthropy to Penn through the years and in his volunteer leadership as an overseer, Saul Fox has modeled the education ideals he learned as a student at Penn. The University of Pennsylvania is deeply grateful to the Winding Way Foundation for its foresight in recognizing Saul passion for Penn future."