Office of the General Counsel

Leadership: Ruby Z. Shellaway

Vice Chancellor, General Counsel, and University Secretary

Ruza is an experienced leader and skilled higher education executive, with a deep understanding of the complex risk and legal issues facing large organizations. As the head of the Office of the General Counsel, she leads the legal, risk management, compliance, and internal audit functions for the university. In the Office of the General Counsel, she has developed a collegial, responsive, pragmatic team that partners with offices around the university to deliver strategic counsel and successful outcomes.

Ruza has held significant roles in higher education, the federal government, and the private sector. Before she joined Vanderbilt University in 2015, Ruza served as Deputy Managing Counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where she oversaw development and support for a team of 150 attorneys and counseled senior OGC officials on significant legal issues and communications to the Office of the Secretary. Prior to serving as the Deputy, she was the first client-based attorney advisor to the Department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, advising on complex and novel civil rights and civil liberties issues. Prior to serving with the Department, Ruza was an associate attorney at Hogan Lovells (previously Hogan & Hartson) in the education practice group, which represented and advised public school districts and higher education institutions nationwide. In this role, she advised higher education clients on issues related to student financial aid, accreditation, academic freedom, conflicts of interest, campus safety, student privacy, and student discipline. Following her graduation from law school, she clerked for Judge James Robertson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and for Judge Judith W. Rogers of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Ruza earned a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in economics and in law, jurisprudence and social thought from Amherst College, where she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She earned her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where she was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and executive editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review.