Paul is Professor of Information Technology Law at the University of East Anglia School of Law. His background is unusual for a legal academic. His first degree was in mathematics, at Cambridge University. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant, working for over 20 years as an auditor.

Paul returned to studies at LSE, completing a PhD in human rights law, concerning the interaction between human rights and internet privacy and in particular, the commercial gathering and use of personal data by organisations like Google and Facebook, and how that use affects our lives.