Mission and Organization of the Office of General Counsel

The General Counsel is the chief legal officer at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) is committed to providing ethical, practical and effective legal counsel, guidance, and policy analysis to further the mission of the University and to minimize legal exposure and costs. It is our function to oversee, manage and coordinate all legal affairs for the University. In doing so, we work closely with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, Educational Affairs Division. For the purposes of prosecuting or defending civil actions involving the University, the University is represented by the Attorney General of the State of Maryland.

The Office is organized on the model of a small law firm. Each attorney is both a generalist capable of handling a wide variety of legal matters and a specialist with particular expertise in certain key areas. Our attorneys and our staff work as a team, consulting within the Office and with the Attorney General's Office as appropriate. Most areas of practice can be handled by more than one attorney so that the Office can respond effectively to most client needs. The Associate General Counsel also oversees the University's in-state residency petition process.

The OGC is a component of the Office of the President. Within the OGC is the Office of Human Relations, which serves to develop and implement strategies and programs which promote equal opportunity and respect for all members of the UMBC campus community.

Staff

David R. Gleason, General Counsel

David Gleason is a licensed attorney in Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia and has over twenty five years of experience. Mr. Gleason joined the UMBC Office of the General Counsel in 1997, and became General Counsel in 2006. Mr. Gleason's prior experience includes working as Corporate Counsel for a federal contract services firm, as a solo practitioner, and as business group counsel for a multi-unit commercial business. Mr. Gleason's practice has included handling federal and commercial contract negotiations, disputes and protests, wage compliance issues, collective bargaining negotiations, and EEOC/OCR, fraud and research misconduct investigations. He has experience in evaluating investment opportunities in emerging technologies and licensing leading edge intellectual property. He has held positions within academia, private industry, and the federal government. He has presented at conferences of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Association of College and University Attorneys. From 2004 to 2010, Mr. Gleason has also served as Interim Associate Vice President for Research.

Mr. Gleason holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Virginia Military Institute, a Master of Science in Information Systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of Law.

Christopher Tkacik, Associate General Counsel

Christopher Tkacik is a licensed attorney in Maryland and has over fifteen years of higher education experience. Mr. Tkacik joined the UMBC Office of the General Counsel as University Counsel in 2006. Previously, Mr. Tkacik served as University Counsel to the Division of Student Affairs and as the Director of Student Judicial Programs. Mr. Tkacik's prior experience includes interning for a Federal Magistrate Judge and as a solo practitioner. Mr. Tkacik's private practice included bankruptcy, domestic, criminal and contract filings. His higher education experience has focused on FERPA issues, student discipline, sexual harassment investigations, hazing investigations, administrative hearings and hearing board training, Clery Act and other compliance issues, campus safety procedures, and policy review. He has presented at conferences of the Association of Student Judicial Affairs and the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication. Since 1997, Mr. Tkacik has also served as the Campus Classification Officer, overseeing the University's in-state residency petition process.

Mr. Tkacik holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and a Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law.

Ms. Susan McGuire

Ms. McGuire has been employed by UMBC since 1997 and with the Office of the General Counsel since 2000. She provides administrative assistance to Mr. Gleason and Mr. Tkacik, including managing their correspondence and daily scheduling, maintaining the departmental database, managing the student support workforce, and providing administrative travel support to OGC, Human Relations and Ms. Ernestine Baker in UMBC's Office of Institutional Advancement. She also manages departmental procurement, the OGC operating budget and payroll, and the personnel administration for the office.

Stephanie Lazarus, PHR, Human Relations Manager

Stephanie Lazarus has worked with the Office of Human Relations since 2002, after working for over a decade with several area law firms, and with the General Counsel's office for a local university. She manages the campus online sexual harassment prevention training program and a similar program for employment discrimination is in development. She works with federal compliance requirements for the university, including the affirmative action plan, Title IX and ADA issues. As the coordinator for the Center for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, she handles requests for mediation, as well as other forms of conflict resolution. She is a practicing mediator, and coordinates the roster of campus-based volunteer mediators.

Ms. Lazarus holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Baltimore.