The Office of the General Counsel is responsible for providing all legal representation for the Board of Curators; the public corporation known as The Curators of the University of Missouri; all administrators of the University of Missouri System and each of its campuses; University of Missouri Extension; and University of Missouri Health System. In addition, the general counsel is responsible for providing legal representation to University employees who are sued for their good faith actions arising within the scope of their employment for the University.
Those responsibilities are carried out through the efforts of a staff of in-house attorneys and through the efforts of outside law firms and attorneys selected and supervised by the general counsel.
The Office of the General Counsel does all of the things that a corporate law office would do for a large business corporation. The University has substantial business operations and legal issues common to such operations that exist in the private sector. However, the University exists for the primary purpose of providing public higher education and such a mission has additional legal challenges peculiar to that purpose and are different than those faced by ordinary business entities.
Reviewed 2019-08-05