Southern Methodist University General Counsel Paul Ward gets asked three questions quite often:
Do you work in the summer? “Yes.”
Is there a difference representing private versus public universities? “Yes.”
What exactly do you do as a college general counsel? “A lot.”
The Texas General Counsel Forum honored Ward this week with its 19th annual Robert H. Dedman Award for Ethics and Law.
Ward, in acceptance remarks Tuesday evening at the Belo Mansion, said that any time an institution has thousands of students and tens of thousands of guests on its campus, “good stuff and bad stuff can happen year-round.”
A 1975 graduate of the SMU Dedman School of Law, Ward has been the vice president of legal affairs for SMU for a decade and oversees a staff of four attorneys and outside counsel. His areas of responsibility range from the university police department and human resources to risk management and environmental health and safety.
Ward previously served as the general counsel at the University of South Carolina and the University of Arizona.
“I don’t miss” having to respond to open records requests that come with being a lawyer at a public university, he said. “I do miss the government immunity and I miss the Eleventh Amendment protections.”
In a video played for the 250 lawyers attending the event, SMU President Gerald Turner praised Ward for his dedication to the university.
“I accept President Turner’s remarks in lieu of my upcoming performance review next month,” Ward said.
(From Left) Keith McDole, Paul Ward and Dena Stroh
The GC Forum also used the event to raise scholarship funds for two SMU Dedman Law School students: Danielle Coleman and Autumn Keefer.
North Texas Tollway Authority General Counsel Dena Stroh, who served as the 2020 Dedman Committee chair, also took a few minutes to honor Carrington Coleman founding partner Jim Coleman, who died last Saturday.
“Jim Coleman was a lawyer of great ethics and professionalism, and recognizing him is truly appropriate for this event,” Stroh said.
Past Texas GC Forum Dedman award recipients include Interstate Battery General Counsel Chris Willis, Lennox International Chief Legal Officer John Torres, Fluor CEO (and former GC) Carlos Hernandez, retired AT&T GC Wayne Watts and Pioneer Natural Resources GC Mark Berg.