A Minnesota native, Garon received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1985 and his J.D. from Columbia in 1988. He came to Hamline as dean in 2003 after practicing at three Los Angeles law firms and teaching at Franklin Pierce Law School and Western State University College of Law. At Hamline, he created new J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.F.A and LL.M. programs, and built two centers of excellence—the Business Law Institute and the Health Law Institute. He also served as interim dean of the Hamline Graduate School of Management from 2005-2006. Later, Garon taught Unincorporated Business Enterprises, Copyright Law, Arts & Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property Law, Informatics Law & Policy, and other courses.
In 2011, Garon left Hamline to become the inaugural director of the Law and Informatics Institute at Northern Kentucky’s Salmon P. Chase Law School. He then served as dean of the Shepard Broad College of Law from 2014-2020, and is currently director of the Intellectual Property, Cybersecurity and Technology Program at Nova Southeastern University law school. Garon is widely published and has chaired the ABA’s Law School Administration Committee and the AALS Section on Part-time Legal Education