Dennis Pavlich is a professor in the Allard School of Law at UBC. A graduate of Witwatersrand University and Yale Law School, Professor Pavlich has been an academic for over 25 years and on two occasions has received awards for teaching excellence, including the University's Killam Teaching Prize. Professor Pavlich teaches courses on property law, the law of trusts and the western idea of law. He has also lectured extensively on aspects in the field of education law. Pavlich is the author and editor of several books and articles dealing in his areas of legal interest including Condominium Law in British Columbia (Butterworths), Academic Freedom and the Inclusive University (UBC Press) and, in 2010, Managing Environmental Justice (Rodopi).

Professor Pavlich has served as UBC's University Counsel and as its Vice President External and Legal Affairs. He was also President of the Great Northern Way campus, a joint venture of UBC, Simon Fraser and Emily Carr universities and the BC Institute of Technology. He has been a member of  UBC's Board of Governors and its Senate, as well as the boards of UBC Properties Trust, the Rick Hansen Institute and Festival Vancouver. He is currently on the boards of the BC Press Council and the council of the Vancouver Institute of which he is a former president. He was founding chair of the board of the Great Northern Way Trust.