HWS News
13 November 2024 • Faculty Guard to Speak on Cornell Keynotes Podcast By Colin Spencer '19
HWS Vice President and General Counsel Lou Guard ’07 will discuss the evolving role of in-house counsel in higher education and the challenges universities face in navigating legal complexities.
Since its release in April, All the Campus Lawyers: Litigation, Regulation, and the New Era of Higher Education by Hobart and William Smith Vice President and General Counsel Lou Guard ’07 and Professor of Economics and former HWS President Joyce Jacobsen has gained national recognition for its explanation and analysis of the changing legal landscape on college campuses.
On Dec. 10, Guard will lend his insight on the Cornell Keynotes podcast. He will discuss topics including legal challenges in-house counsel could face, why in-house counsel needs to be well versed in a variety of potential legal issues, factors that have contributed to the increasing need for institutions to have in-house counsel and the potential impacts of litigation on student life in higher education.
The live program is at 1 p.m.; attendees can register here.
The book was featured in The New Yorker as one of the best books of 2024, appearing in the publication's article "Academic Freedom Under Fire” and has been highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Praised by the Cornell Law School News as “groundbreaking…a vital, up-to-date assessment of the impact of legal concerns on higher education,” the authors examine key challenges facing college administrators in the past 15 years, including how institutions can balance compliance with their core educational mission and the role in-house counsel plays in navigating complex legal issues on campus.
“Guard and Jacobsen offer a clear and accessible tour d’horizon, explaining the issues and arguments that keep administrators up at night, the role of the campus counsel, how academic life became so deeply entangled with legal norms, and what the future might hold,” says President of Hamilton College David Wippman. “Anyone interested in the intersection of law and higher education should start here.”
Cornell Keynotes brings in leading experts and scholars from Cornell University for conversations on trending topics, including on finance, technology, art and culture. Past guests have included Clarence Lee, the co-founder of Eisengard AI and an expert on machine learning and customer analytics, Tarcisio Alvarez-Rivero, a recently retired senior staff member of the United Nations and a lecturer at the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell, and Samantha Noelle Shepard, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell.
In the spring, the two will teach “ECON 330: Law and Economics of Higher Education,” a course that examines the current legal and regulatory landscape for colleges and universities and considers the economic, financial and social impact on the operations and fundamental mission of colleges and universities. Guard also teaches Higher Education Law in the Higher Education Leadership graduate program.
A cum laude graduate of Hobart and William Smith and Cornell Law School, Guard joined HWS in 2014. He provides legal advice and counsel across institutional areas, assists the president with major initiatives and projects, and is responsible for the strategic direction of legal affairs for HWS. Guard serves as Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees and is the primary governance adviser to the Board. He previously served as Chief of Staff to President Mark D. Gearan. A Geneva native, Guard is admitted to practice law in New York and Pennsylvania, and has worked at leading law firms in Philadelphia, Penn., and Rochester, N.Y. His work has appeared or been referenced in the Journal of College and University Law, Inside Higher Ed, Trusteeship Magazine, The Harvard Crimson and other outlets. He is an active member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). He has served as a panelist at Stetson Law School’s National Conference on Law and Higher Education, as a NACUA panel moderator, and as a consultant to the Association of Governing Boards on issues of collegiate mergers and acquisitions. Beyond HWS, he has taught and guest lectured on business law and higher education law topics at Boston College Law School and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School.
A member of the HWS Economics Department since 2019, Jacobsen is an expert on labor economics, particularly the economics of gender, and is the author of Advanced Introduction to Feminist Economics, The Economics of Gender, Queer Economics: A Reader (co-edited with Adam Zeller) and Labor Markets and Employment Relationships (with Gilbert L. Skillman). Previously, Jacobsen served as the President of Hobart and William Smith from 2019-2022 and the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wesleyan University. Jacobsen earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with her A.B. in economics as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 2021, Jacobsen was awarded the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award, which is given to an individual who has furthered the status of women in the economics profession through example, achievements and increasing understanding of how women can advance in the economics profession or mentoring others. She began her academic career teaching at Rhodes College and Wesleyan University where she was awarded an endowed chair as Andrews Professor of Economics and received the university’s prestigious Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She began her work as an administrator in 2013 when she was appointed Dean of Social Sciences and Director of Global Initiatives at Wesleyan, and then Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs in 2015. Additionally, she is the author of scores of journal articles and book chapters exploring sex segregation, migration and the effects of labor force intermittency on women’s earnings, among other topics, as well as the economics of wine and other collectibles.
