HWS News
10 March 2025 • Faculty 'All the Campus Lawyers' Earns Acclaim in the Los Angeles Review of Books By Colin Spencer '19
UC Berkeley Law School Dean reviews highly praised work.
The influential book All the Campus Lawyers: Litigation, Regulation, and the New Era of Higher Education, written by Vice President and General Counsel Lou Guard ’07 and Professor of Economics and former HWS President Joyce Jacobsen, has received high praise in a review by Erwin Chemerinsky, the Dean of the University of California, Berkeley Law School.
In his piece, “Colleges or Caretakers?” published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Chemerinsky, the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, explores how Guard and Jacobsen illuminate the evolving legal challenges faced by colleges and universities. The book examines pressing issues such as civil rights, free speech, institutional oversight, and the growing responsibilities of campus legal counsel.
Chemerinsky highlights how the authors trace the historical development of these legal concerns. He also underscores how colleges increasingly bear responsibility for supporting students' emotional well-being.
“What Guard and Jacobsen have done is write an informative exploration of the legal dilemmas confronting universities today and the ways they relate to the role of the campus counsel,” Chemerinsky writes. "They have written a terrific book that captures what campus counsel do and what makes the position such a challenging and exciting one. It deserves a wide readership among those engaged in higher education and those who care about it.”
Chemerinsky, who has served as Dean of UC Berkeley Law since 2017, is a distinguished legal scholar. Prior to his tenure at Berkeley, he was the founding Dean and a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. He has also held academic positions at Duke University, the University of Southern California and DePaul University. The author of 19 books, most recently Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism (2022), he has published more than 200 law review articles. In 2024, The National Jurist named him the most influential figure in legal education, and he was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.
The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit publication dedicated to fostering thought-provoking discussions on literature, culture, and the arts.
All the Campus Lawyers was previously recognized by The New Yorker as one of the best books of 2024 and was praised by Louis Menand in his article “Academic Freedom Under Fire.” The book has also been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.
In January, Guard and Jacobsen delivered the keynote address at the Touro Law Center symposium “Academics, Lawyers & Government: Who is Leading Higher Education in the 21st Century?” where they discussed the shifting legal landscape in higher education. They were also invited to speak at Amherst College by President Michael Elliott and the Center for Humanistic Inquiry.
Guard has further contributed to conversations on legal changes in higher education through appearances on the Cornell Keynotes podcast and at events such as the United Educators Risk Management Advisory Council and the Northeast Deans Annual Meeting.
This spring, Guard and Jacobsen are co-teaching “ECON 330: Law and Economics of Higher Education,” a course examining the legal and regulatory landscape of higher education and its economic and social impact. Guard also teaches “Higher Education and the Law” in the Higher Education Leadership graduate program.
Top: Professor of Economics Joyce Jacobson and Vice President and General Counsel Lou Guard discuss academic freedom during their “Law and Economics of Higher Education” course.
