The Legal Landscape of Higher Education

Jens David Ohlin is the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. Professor Ohlin’s work stands at the intersection of four related fields: criminal law, criminal procedure, public international law, and the laws of war. Trained as both a lawyer and a philosopher, his research has tackled questions as diverse as criminal conspiracy and the punishment of collective criminal action; the philosophical foundations of international law; and the role of new technologies in warfare, including cyberwar, remotely piloted drones, and autonomous weapons.

Professor Ohlin’s latest research project involves foreign election interference. This project resulted in a monograph published on the eve of the 2020 election by the Cambridge University Press entitled “Election Interference: International Law and the Future of Democracy” as well as a forthcoming edited volume published by the Oxford University Press and written with Duncan B. Hollis entitled “Defending Democracies: Combating Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age.”

Professor Ohlin is also a dedicated teacher and the sole author of three new casebooks in three different fields: “Criminal Procedure: Doctrine, Application, and Practice”; “Criminal Law: Doctrine, Application, and Practice”; and “International Law: Evolving Doctrine and Practice.” The “Criminal Procedure” book is also available in two splits: “Investigative Criminal Procedure” and “Adjudicative Criminal Procedure.”

In addition to dozens of law review articles and book chapters, Professor Ohlin has published several monographs and edited volumes, including “Interrogation and Torture: Integrating Efficacy with Law and Morality” with S.J. Barela, M. Fallon, and G. Gaggioli; “Oxford Handbook on International Criminal Justice” with K. Heller, F. Mégret, S. Nouwen, and D. Robinson; “Weighing Lives in War” with L. May and C. Finkelstein; “Research Handbook on Remote Warfare”; “Necessity in International Law”; “The Assault on International Law”; “Targeted Killings: Law and Morality in an Asymmetrical World” with A. Altman and C. Finkelstein; “Cyberwar: Law and Ethics for Virtual Conflicts” with C. Finkelstein and K. Govern; and “Defending Humanity: When Force is Justified and Why” with George Fletcher. He is co-editor, with Claire Finkelstein, of the Oxford Series in Ethics, National Security, and the Rule of Law, and a steering-board member of an international working group researching secondary liability for international crimes.

A cum laude graduate of Hobart College and Cornell Law School, Lou Guard joined Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2014. He provides legal advice and counsel across institutional areas, assists the president with all major initiatives and projects, and is responsible for the strategic direction of legal affairs for the Colleges. Professor Guard serves as Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees and is the primary governance advisor to the board. He previously served as Chief of Staff to President Emeritus Mark Gearan. 

A Geneva native, Professor Guard is admitted to practice law in New York and Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Colleges, he worked at leading law firms in Philadelphia, PA, and Rochester, NY. Professor Guard currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Journal of College and University Law, where his written work has also appeared, and is an active member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). He has served as a panelist at Stetson Law School’s National Conference on Law and Higher Education, as a NACUA panel moderator, and as a consultant to the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) on issues of collegiate mergers and acquisitions. 

Professor Guard has taught and guest-lectured on business law and higher education law topics at Hobart and William Smith and Boston College Law School, respectively, and is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School where he teaches a seminar on the law of higher education.