John Edward Sexton (born September 29, 1942) is an American lawyer and academic. He presently is the Benjamin F. Butler Professor of Law at New York University, where he teaches at the law school and NYU's undergraduate colleges. Sexton actively writes, including books for both the academic and popular press. He also has created several non-profit educational organizations. Sexton served as the fifteenth President of NYU, from 2002 to 2015. During his time as President, NYU's stature rose dramatically into the rank of the world's top universities; and it became the world's first global network university.He was also one of the highest paid presidents of any American university. Sexton has been called a "transformational" figure in higher education and one of the United States' 10 best coll