Attorney Kim Taylor was appointed vice president and general counsel for the University, according to a July 1 announcement by President Vincent Price.
Taylor succeeds Pamela Bernard — who is retiring after serving in the role for 18 years — and will begin her term Sept. 1. She was selected from a national search led by committee chair Kerry Abrams, James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke dean of the Duke Law School.
“I am thrilled to join President Price’s leadership team and become a member of the Duke community, in addition to being honored and humbled to succeed Pam Bernard as general counsel,” Taylor said, per the statement.
Taylor has served as the vice president and general counsel for the University of Chicago since August 2014. There, she received the university’s John Roger’s Jr. Business Diversity Impact Award for her work promoting diversity and inclusion in hiring practices.
At Duke, her responsibilities will include acting as the University’s chief legal officer and serving as a member of the president’s cabinet. She will direct Duke’s legal strategy on topics including “student and employment issues, health law, research issues, tax-exempt organizations, athletics, corporate matters and litigation coordination for the University.”
Duke has faced a number of legal obstacles in the past year. The University was sued for discrimination in August by a professor claiming she was paid significantly less than her male colleagues, then was sued again in September by a “reverse discrimination” activist targeting the Alice M. Baldwin Scholars program. Duke also settled a financial aid antitrust lawsuit in January alongside 16 other elite institutions, where the University committed to pay $24 million.
“Kim brings extensive legal expertise and senior leadership experience to Duke, including a decade of service in her current role as vice president and general counsel at the University of Chicago,” Price wrote. “I look forward to her sound legal guidance as we continue to navigate an ever-changing legal landscape as a leading university of this century.”
Taylor received a Bachelor of History from the University of California at Berkeley and a Doctor of Law with honors from the University of California Hastings College of the Law.
Prior to joining the UChicago administration, she worked at Kirkland & Ellis for 18 years and was an equity partner from 2003 to 2011. She was also a partner at Hilton & Bishop from 2012 to 2014.
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Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.