Dates

• Usage: 1988 - 1992
• Usage: 1992 - 1998

Biography

The Office of Legal Counsel for Financial and Business Affairs was established in 1988, reporting to the Financial Vice President and Treasurer, with Dennis J. Yesalonia, SJ, serving as its first director. In 1992 the office was restructured as the Legal Counsel for University Affairs and its reporting relationship shifted directly to the President; by 1998 the title had evolved further to University General Counsel.

Joseph Herlihy joined the university in 1994 as associate legal counsel and assumed the role of General Counsel in 1998, a position he held until his retirement in 2021. He was succeeded by Nora Field, who had joined the office in 2005 and served as Deputy General Counsel beginning in 2014. Field continues in the role as of this writing.

Now known as the Office of the General Counsel, the office advises the university across a broad range of legal and regulatory matters, including contracts and transactions, litigation and disputes, corporate governance, health and safety, faculty and student affairs, labor and employment, intercollegiate athletics, real estate and construction, international operations, research, intellectual property, data privacy, and gifts and taxation. It oversees the university's compliance program and bears sole responsibility for engaging outside counsel on the university's behalf.