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.