Description:
Job Summary:A Private Ivy League Research University seeks an accomplished and visionary leader to serve in the critically important role of Vice President and General Counsel. The Vice President and General Counsel (“GC”) serves as the Chief Legal Officer for the University and the Harvard Corporation (“Corporation”) and reports directly to the President. **Please note that Korn Ferry has been exclusively retained for this engagement. See more details below on how to apply.**
The Vice President and General Counsel leads a team of talented professionals who provide legal counsel and representation to the University and its schools, divisions, units, affiliates, and related entities on the broad range of legal matters affecting the University. The Office of General Counsel serves the Corporation, the President, officers, administrators, faculty, and staff in their official capacities. The Vice President and General Counsel is also responsible for hiring and managing outside counsel to represent the University in a broad array of matters, ranging from legislative and regulatory inquiries, academic integrity, freedom of speech and inquiry, research compliance, trademark protection, labor and employment law, ethics and conflicts of interest, privacy and data protection, real estate transactions, contracts and grants, tax law, liability and insurance, public monies and purchases, and a wide range of other areas affecting student, faculty and staff well-being, from affirmative action to Title IX and beyond.
The Office of the General Counsel is tasked to provide the highest quality legal services to the University in a responsible, constructive, strategic, ethical, and timely manner; to protect and promote the mission and values of the University, including compliance with its obligations and protection and promotion of its interests; to minimize legal risks and costs; and to address and resolve legal disputes. Consistent with the mission and best interests of the University, including its duties to follow the law and meet its obligations to the public, governments and third parties, the lawyers in the Office of General Counsel strive to be problem solvers; to engage in strategic thinking with the University's decision makers; to defend the interests of the University and its constituents; to protect and promote integrity and ethical conduct; to practice preventive law.
As trusted advisor to the Corporation, President, officers, faculty and staff, in the context of the heightened social, political, and philanthropic scrutiny currently faced by the University, the role of the General Counsel takes on a higher level of participation, in partnership with stakeholders in the Center and the Schools, in the design, communication, and implementation of University-wide decisions and goals, and risk management activities and objectives. The General Counsel will be relied upon to provide wise strategic counsel on issues of the highest risk in the legal and political arenas as well as in the court of public opinion across the breadth of the University's operations
Position Description:
A Private Ivy League Research University's Office of the General Counsel (“OGC”) is responsible for all the legal work arising from the activities of A Private Ivy League Research University's Faculties and departments. The mission of the OGC is to render timely and thoughtful advice on the broad range of legal issues that the University, its faculty, and administrators confront on behalf of the University.
The OGC is headed by the Vice President and General Counsel who has overall responsibility for directing the University's legal affairs. Day-to-day management is provided by the Administrative Coordinator, themselves a University Attorney. The Deputy General Counsel handles the assignment of matters and the long-range planning of legal services. The Office also has a Department Administrator who coordinates support staff and provides other administrative support for the thirteen University Attorney and three Associate Attorneys who constitute the OGC's legal team. While this is the current composition of the OGC, the incoming General Counsel will be relied upon to assess the organizational structure of the Office and determine whether the current staffing levels and organization of work is properly equipped to satisfy current and foreseeable legal needs of the University and its affiliates.
The Office is organized on the model of a small law firm. Each University Attorney is both a generalist capable of handling a wide variety of legal matters and a specialist with expertise in distinct disciplines. Attorneys and legal assistants work as a team, consulting with their colleagues within the Office and with outside counsel as appropriate. Most areas of practice are staffed by more than one attorney, so that the Office can respond promptly to client needs.
In addition to overseeing matters arising in the areas of the law outlined above, the OGC partners with multiple stakeholders across the University's Central Administration (e.g., Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology) and with leadership in the Schools in the formulation and promulgation of sound governance practices, policies, and procedures.
To see a detailed job description (including key responsibilities, desired skills and competencies), please visit the Korn Ferry Website at: https://kfopportunities.loop.jobs/go/ext/ERTEA0/242
Basic Qualifications:
Candidates should hold a Juris Doctorate degree from a law school approved for accreditation by the American Bar Association; be a member in good standing of the Bar of the state in which they practice and have eligibility for such standing in Massachusetts. They are expected to have at least fifteen years of experience as an attorney practicing in a relevant area of the law and should have attained a position of senior responsibility in a university law department, law firm, government agency, corporation, or entity of comparable complexity.
Additional Qualifications and Skills:
Experience as the general counsel to an organization or in the service of an organization is preferred, but not required.