Vanderbilt University Gives Interim General Counsel Permanent Post

Ruby Shellaway, vice chancellor, general counsel and university secretary at Vanderbilt University. Photo: Susan Urmy

Six months after launching a national search, Vanderbilt University has turned inward for its next top lawyer.

The Nashville, Tennessee, school announced that Ruby Shellaway, interim general counsel since Audrey Anderson left last July, has been named vice chancellor, general counsel and university secretary on a permanent basis.

Shellaway, who could not immediately be reached for comment about her new position, joined the Vanderbilt legal department in 2015 as deputy general counsel. As interim general counsel, she led “transformation of the General Counsel Office to deliver increased responsiveness and efficiencies,” including the hiring of the department’s first legal operations chief, according to a statement announcing her hire.

In her new role, Shellaway leads the 15-member general counsel's office, as well as the Office of Conflict of Interest and Commitment Management, the statement said.

“Ruby is an outstanding attorney with a clear vision of how the general counsel strategically supports the university’s mission and values to ensure our long-term success,” Vanderbilt chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said in the news release. “The legal landscape for higher education is complex and changing, and Ruby’s counsel has been essential to our ability to understand and successfully navigate these challenges.”

Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Shellaway served for five years, most recently as the deputy managing counsel, as an attorney for the United States Department of Homeland Security. She also worked as an associate in the education practice group at Hogan & Hartson, now Hogan Lovells, where she represented public school districts and higher-education institutions.

“I am honored to work with Chancellor Zeppos and his leadership team on key legal questions facing our university community and higher education today,” Shellaway said in the statement.

Interestingly, her predecessor Anderson came to Vanderbilt in 2013 after serving as deputy general counsel at DHS and working as a partner at Hogan & Hartson. At the time she did so, Anderson said she was stepping down from Vanderbilt to pursue the next professional chapter in her life.

A graduate of Yale Law School, Shellaway clerked for then-Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and for Judge Judith Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.