Job Title:
General Counsel, Columbia University

Compensation:
Competitive compensation package will include base salary and excellent benefits; relocation assistance if necessary.

Position Description:
The General Counsel provides proactive professional advice on critical strategic, legal, and public policy issues, is part of the senior management team, and interacts closely with the University's senior officers. The size, complexity, scope and diversity of the University generate a range of complex, cutting-edge legal issues. Many, such as academic freedom, sponsored research, shared governance, and student rights and obligations, are unique to an academic environment and add complexity to the more traditional and predictable legal and business issues encountered by any huge enterprise.

The General Counsel is charged with providing advice and support to the President, the University's Board of Trustees, the officers, and the faculty on business, legal, and public policy issues. The General Counsel must:

1. Support the University's functions and business through the delivery of legal support and guidance.
2. Develop and implement an ethical vision and strategic plan for the University's legal services.
3. Function as an integral partner within the President's senior leadership team.
4. Ensure that the University operates within the appropriate legal governance framework, and take ultimate responsibility for the identification and management of legal risks across the University.
5. Identify and prioritize the response to various areas of legal risk and establish a clearly understood framework for legal policies within the Office of General Counsel.
6. Lead the internal legal team and set objectives.
7. Be accountable for the management of relationships with external legal partners, ensure that all such relationships are effective, cost efficient, and foster constructive outcomes on behalf of the University's stakeholders.
8. Establish and manage a budget for the provision of the University's legal services by both inside and outside counsel, ensuring compliance with the budget, as well as establish levels of accountability and evaluate results.

Candidate Qualifications:
Preference will be given to candidates who possess the following:

• Demonstrated legal and ethical stature, maturity, competence and confidence to operate with credibility at the executive and trustee level, as well as a professional history of maintaining objectivity while driving appropriate outcomes, managing multiple stakeholder agendas, and promoting high client service standards.
• Intellectual and conceptual flexibility and creativity, with the ability to analyze, interpret, present, and write about complex ideas and concepts in a clear, concise fashion.
• Adeptness at working in a highly nuanced environment with varied constituencies.
• The natural ability to rapidly prioritize as well as execute while exhibiting a sense of urgency, superb judgment, compassion, wisdom and a sense of humor.
• A history of successfully working with complex structures and facing constant change.
• The understanding and appreciation that the University's primary missions of education and research, and the professionals who execute on those missions, will be the General Counsel's primary focus and clients.
• Impeccable academic credentials which include a J.D. from a top tier law school.

Required Traits:

• Must be cerebral as well as pragmatic.
• Must have a down to earth personal style; must be likeable and communicate well.
• Must be resilient in the face of numerous urgent priorities and interaction with many strong personalities within the University community.
• Must challenge self as much as others and set ambitious goals which others are inspired to achieve.
• Must see the world through the University stakeholders' eyes and focus on the right outcome for the University at all times.
• Must understand and respect the University's standards and find useful and intelligent ways to apply them.
• Must have a passion for education.

Other Desired Characteristics:

• A lawyer of integrity and wisdom who inspires confidence and trust.
• Intellectual zest and curiosity.
• A collegial and collaborative mindset, as well as patience with process.
• A creative problem solver, not a wrist slapper.
• A deep appreciation for, and commitment to, the benefits of diversity.
• A pronounced sense of urgency.
• A strategic thought partner who can guide clients to their own conclusions.
• A pragmatist who speaks and writes in plain English that can be readily translated into other languages, when needed.

About the Office of the General Counsel:
Under the leadership of outgoing General Counsel Elizabeth J. Keefer, the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) supports the dynamic educational environment of Columbia University by providing legal advice to foster sound decision-making in all areas of operation, instruction, research and administration.

Columbia University as an institution is the OGC's client. The OGC's function is to provide, manage and coordinate quality legal services, including legal counsel and representation, litigation and legal risk management, contract drafting and review, compliance oversight and other services and counsel to all parts of the University, including the Columbia University Medical Center. As part of these services, OGC provides counsel in decision-making to the Board of Trustees, the President, Provost, Vice Presidents, Deans and Directors, faculty, supervisors and other employees. OGC provides advice on the legal implications of policy and other decisions under applicable law, regulations, and policies, in addition to representing the University in litigation matters, administrative and regulatory hearings, and significant business transactions.

It is the goal of OGC to provide counsel to minimize legal risk and costs, reduce litigation exposure, and ensure legal compliance, and to do so efficiently, expeditiously, reliably and professionally.

Columbia first established an in-house legal department in 1974. Before 1974, an outside law firm acted as counsel to the University. During this period, any member of the University Community seeking legal services called directly on outside counsel. Starting in the late 1960's, the cost of this uncontrolled use of outside lawyers became very high.

To control these costs, the inside legal department (now the Office of the General Counsel) has since coordinated all outside legal services. As part of this control, outside law firms can be retained only by the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and bills for outside legal services will be paid only if the work was initiated or approved by OGC. To assure the integrity and independence of these decisions and of the legal services rendered to the University, the General Counsel reports directly to the President and the Trustees.

OGC represents the legal interests of the entire University, including such geographically separate entities as the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Rockland County, Nevis Laboratories in Westchester County, Reid Hall in Paris, and the entire Columbia Medical Center (formerly Health Sciences campus) in Washington Heights. At present, the office consists of the General Counsel, the Deputy General Counsel, nine Associate General Counsels, five Assistant General Counsels, three paralegals, a Director of Budget & Human Resources, assistant business manager, file manager, secretarial and clerical support staff and student help. The entire office resides in Low Library.

The ongoing legal business of the University involves a broad array of services in connection with financings, contracts, trusts and estates, real estate and tax matters, labor and employment issues, commercial litigation, clinical trials, and science and technology agreements and licensing. All OGC attorneys are experienced in handling contract and general business legal matters, and all have a broad capability to handle the great variety of legal problems which arise in the context of a large university with substantial financial interests and real property ownership, in addition to the human problems which arise in the context of a large and diverse community.