As Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary for Lehigh University, Matthew Lahey is the University's chief legal officer and the liaison to the Board of Trustees and its committees. He is responsible for managing the University's legal affairs and overseeing all legal services to the University. He is also responsible for and oversees the University's Office of Risk Management and Institutional Compliance.
Mr. Lahey brings over two and a half decades of legal experience in higher education and private practice to his role at Lehigh, most recently as Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary at Oberlin College. While at Oberlin, he managed the institution's legal services, advised on a broad range of legal and regulatory matters and supported key governance functions, including advising the Board of Trustees and its committees, coordinating and facilitating faculty committees, and interpreting and maintaining the institution’s governing documents. Mr. Lahey also oversaw Oberlin College’s Office of Risk Management and provided direct legal oversight for its Office of Institutional Equity.
Prior to Oberlin College, he was Associate General Counsel at the University of Notre Dame for over eight years. In that role, he worked extensively on issues related to employment law, Title IX, and institutional compliance, and was the Office of General Counsel’s Employment Team Leader. While at Notre Dame, he also held a faculty appointment at the Notre Dame Law School, where he taught Labor & Employment Law and Employment Discrimination Law for a number of years.
Prior to Mr. Lahey’s work at Notre Dame, Mr. Lahey was a Partner in the Labor & Employment group at an AmLaw 100 firm in Chicago, Illinois, where he counseled and litigated on behalf of employers of all sizes on a wide range of employment and labor matters. Mr. Lahey has been recognized as a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and throughout his legal career, he has published frequently and has given regular presentations on Higher Ed and Labor & Employment laws and trends. Mr. Lahey also served for a number of years on the Board of Directors for the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County, a federally funded non-profit organization committed to providing legal and other critical support services to victims of domestic violence.
He earned his juris doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1999, and went on to clerk for the Honorable Rudolf T. Randa, United States District Court (E.D. Wis.). He is a 1993 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with honors and earned a varsity monogram in football.
Matthew Lahey Named Lehigh’s New Vice President and University General Counsel