Abstract
This chapter describes the legal rationalization of American higher education over the past several decades. We contend that legal offices emerged and expanded in response to two societal trends: the development of stronger and more extensive linkages between universities and society, and the rise of empowered individuals in colleges and universities. Descriptive statistics from a cross-sectional sample of 237 four-year colleges and universities in the United States indicate that half of American higher education institutions have a general counsel position, while nearly all of the elite (“Ivy Plus”) schools in the country have adopted this role. We conclude by suggesting further research on this topic that analyzes its developments longitudinally and cross-nationally.
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Notes
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Columbia University , for example, states that, “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…has since coordinated all outside legal services” (Columbia University 2017).
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The journal, which is managed by the University of Notre Dame’s Law School, can be found here: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/jcul/.
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The National Association of College and University Attorneys provides a more comprehensive list of areas that includes: administrative law; animal law; athletics and sports; business; finance, and contracts; civil rights; computer and internet law; constitutional law; development and fundraising ; employment; environmental law; governance ; health sciences; immigration; intellectual property; labor relations; lobbying and legislative affairs; litigation; real property acquisition, development , and zoning; research and technology transfer; statutory and regulatory compliance; student admissions, housing, discipline, and organizations; taxation; and torts (National Association of College and University Attorneys 2017).
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Similarly, the University of Chicago’s Office of Legal Counsel states that “The University ’s Vice President and General Counsel , Kim Taylor, and eight other attorneys in the Office of Legal Counsel are all members of the National Association of College and University Attorneys” (University of Chicago 2017).
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In England, Cambridge University , Oxford University , and the London School of Economics have all incorporated legal offices into their university structure (Cambridge 2017; Oxford 2017; LSE 2017); in the Philippines, De La Salle University ’s website verifies that its office of legal counsel “provides legal advice to members of the academic community with legal problems involving the University ” (De La Salle 2017); in Belgium, the University of Antwerp contains a Legal Follow-up Centre that centrally manages the university ’s legal and corporate affairs (Antwerp 2017); in Canada, the University of British Columbia and McGill University both have extensive offices of legal counsel (University of British Columbia 2017; McGill 2017); and in Australia, the Australian National University ’s formal structure also includes a central legal office (Australian National University 2017). This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but is instead intended to suggest that university legal offices are not developments that are specific to higher education in the United States .
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Furuta, J., Ramirez, F.O. (2019). The Legal Rationalization of American Higher Education. In: Christensen, T., Gornitzka, Å., Ramirez, F. (eds) Universities as Agencies. Public Sector Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92713-8_9
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