July marks an important step forward for Roanoke College. The Virginia liberal arts college welcomes its first general counsel, G. Michael Pace Jr.?only a month before his daughter will join Roanoke as an incoming freshman.
That?s a coincidence, according to Roanoke President Michael Maxey. The school began to consider hiring a GC long before Pace?s daughter was college-aged. ?We started to look at this about six years ago and polled a number of other institutions about their approaches to in-house and outside counsel, and concluded that it was a good idea [to hire a general counsel] as soon as we could get to it,? he said.
In 2004, Roanoke announced a strategic plan to be ?one of the top 100 liberal arts colleges? in the U.S. by 2017 and began a period of expansion, focusing on everything from the school?s endowment to its physical plant. In April, the college kicked off a $200 million fundraising campaign, the largest in its history. That money will fund a new campus center, scholarships, and academic programs.
Maxey said that growth naturally translates to more legal needs for the institution: ?The work of the college has grown more complex as the college has grown and changed.? He cited a growing staff and faculty, along with recent real estate acquisitions as reasons to have an attorney close at hand. ?It seems like this a natural step in the maturity of the college,? he said.
Pace says that growth is a big part of what attracted him to the job: ?Frankly, Roanoke College is on a rocket. To be part of that is very exciting to me.?
The new GC has been a witness to the college?s evolution. He is a longtime resident of Salem, VA, where the college is located, and an adjunct professor in the school?s public affairs department. From 1999 to 2012, he was the managing partner of Roanoke-based firm Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, which provides outside counsel to the college.
?[Pace] has really served our community in a fine and distinguished way,? Maxey said.
Pace is also the former president of the Virginia Bar Association, and the founder and president of the Center for Teaching the Rule of Law, which located its offices on the Roanoke College campus in 2012?and has been lauded by the American Bar Association Commission on Civic Education as a ?best practices? program for bar associations in the United States. He received a B.A. in history from Hampden-Sydney College and a J.D. from Washington & Lee University School of Law, where he also serves as an adjunct professor.
Although Pace is eager to transition from private practice to in-house work, he expects it to be an adjustment. ?The in-house general counsel to a college is different form providing legal services as lawyer with a firm,? he said. ?My biggest challenge is getting to go more in-depth in the how the college and its various departments work, and to educate myself so I can be helpful on a daily basis for the college and its legal needs.?
A secondary challenge might be avoiding his daughter, whom he has promised to see on campus only when she wishes. ?She?s a little bit scared about it,? he joked.
Source: http://www.law.com/corporatecounsel/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202610100667&rss=rss_cc
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