University Counsel III
Athletics and Institutional Transactions
USC Office of the General Counsel
The University Counsel III – Athletics and Institutional Transactions is a senior attorney in the USC Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and reports to the Deputy General Counsel, Corporate. As a member of OGC's transactional practice, the attorney provides strategic, practical, and business-oriented legal counsel to university leadership on sophisticated commercial transactions, institutional initiatives, and operational matters.
The attorney serves as OGC's lead counsel on college Athletics-related legal matters while maintaining a diverse institutional transactional practice supporting academic schools, research units, and administrative departments across the university. The successful candidate will have substantial experience serving as in-house counsel in higher education or a similarly complex organization and will possess exceptional judgment, strong transactional skills, client-oriented service and communication, and the ability to provide practical legal advice to multiple institutional clients. Experience supporting research institutions, compliance, and research-related transactions is highly desirable but is not required.
Primary Responsibilities
The University Counsel III is expected to:
Serve as the Office of the General Counsel's lead attorney on Athletics-related legal matters, providing strategic legal counsel on commercial transactions, sponsorships, licensing, media and marketing agreements, employment contracts, games and events contracts, NIL-related institutional issues, conference matters, athletics operations, vendor relationships, facility use agreements, strategic partnerships, and other legal and business matters affecting the Athletics Department.
Draft, negotiate, interpret, and advise on a broad range of sophisticated commercial and institutional agreements, including services agreements, procurement contracts, sponsorship agreements, licensing agreements, technology agreements, consulting agreements, confidentiality agreements, research agreements, memoranda of understanding, affiliation agreements, and other contracts supporting the university's academic, business, and operational objectives.
Provide legal counsel to leadership of the university's health schools, including the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, Keck School of Medicine, Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy, and the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, on transactional, operational, and institutional matters.
Advise university departments and administrative units, including the Alumni Association, USC Museums, USC Shoah Foundation, Communications, USC Radio, Internal Audit, Information Technology Services (ITS), the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer (OCISO), the Marching Band, Global Initiatives (including immigration-related matters), the Office of Professionalism and Ethics (OPE), Bovard College and Online Education, and University Relations.
Provide transactional legal support to the Office of Research and Innovation, including the Department of Contracts and Grants (DCG), the USC Stevens Center for Innovation, the Alfred E. Mann Institute (AMI), the Department of Animal Resources, and matters involving visiting researchers, and other research-related activities. Advise on sponsored research agreements, industry collaborations, technology commercialization, research compliance, export controls, conflicts of interest, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), and related legal matters.
Support major university initiatives and strategic partnerships by collaborating with university leadership and administrative partners to identify legal and business risks, develop practical solutions, and facilitate successful implementation.
Draft and revise university policies, standard agreement templates, and guidance documents related to contracting, procurement, Athletics, and institutional…