The General Counsel
The General Counsel, Lou Guard serves as the Colleges’ chief legal officer and represents the Colleges on all legal matters. This representation includes providing legal services and advice to the Board of Trustees, President, cabinet and divisions, and all other duly authorized representatives of the Colleges acting in their capacity for the Colleges. The General Counsel is exclusively responsible for retaining outside counsel and supervises all such professional services with the goal of minimizing costs to the institution.
The goal of the General Counsel is to advance the mission of the Colleges by providing effective, timely, strategic and thoughtful legal advice in support of the Colleges’ mission.
As Assistant Secretary to the Board, Guard is elected by the Board of Trustees pursuant to the Colleges’ Bylaws. The Assistant Secretary directs and manages strategic and logistical support to the Board with the assistance of the Director of Board and Community Relations.
About the General Counsel
A cum laude graduate of Hobart College and Cornell Law School, Louis H. Guard joined HWS in 2014. He provides legal advice and counsel across institutional areas, assists the President with all major initiatives and projects, and is responsible for the strategic direction of legal affairs for the Colleges. He also provides leadership oversight for the Human Resources function and serves as Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees and is the primary governance advisor to the Board. He has previously served as Chief of Staff to President Emeritus Mark Gearan. Prior to joining the Colleges, Guard worked at leading law firms in Philadelphia, Pa., and Rochester N.Y. Guard is the co-author of All the Campus Lawyers: Litigation, Regulation, and the New Era of Higher Education (Harvard 2024), which was named to The New Yorker's list of Best Books of 2024. His work has been referenced or published in The New Yorker, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Trusteeship Magazine, The Harvard Crimson, the Journal of College and University Law, and other sources. Guard is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School where he teaches the seminar on the law of higher education.
The Office of General Counsel only handles the Colleges’ legal matters and represents only the Colleges, not any individual. If you need an attorney for personal matters the New York State Bar Association’s free referral service may be of assistance: 1-800-342-3661.