Font Size:

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Stephanie Tsacoumis has stepped onto the campus of Georgetown University every Monday this fall. She’s there to teach Federal Securities Law Disclosure, a course offered at the university's law school. But the campus will soon be seeing a lot more of Tsacoumis. Starting November 2, she'll take over as the university's vice president and general counsel, an appointment announced on October 20.

Tsacoumis has been an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center since 2001, but it’s the work she's done at her day job that motivated her to move to the legal side of academia.

"For the last five years, my practice has included a substantial amount of nonprofit work, and it's been some of the most rewarding work I've ever done," says Tsacoumis, who has represented such nonprofit clients as the American National Red Cross and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. She has also spent the last six years as co-managing partner of Gibson Dunn's Washington, D.C., office.

Tsacoumis's interest in the legal matters of nonprofits, along with the vision and leadership of Georgetown University President John DeGioia, is what convinced her to leave private practice.

"I wasn't particularly looking to make a move," says Tsacoumis, whose name was given to the university's search committee by a friend, "when I was offered the job, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to bring my skill set to such a world class institution."

As Georgetown's top lawyer, Tsacoumis will advise the school's president, governing boards, and senior and administrative officers. She'll also handle the legal implications of the university's policies.

"Most of my skills from the private sector are directly transferable," Tsacoumis says. "On the strategic front, I've helped clients navigate this economic climate, which will be something I'll have to do at Georgetown, too."

Tsacoumis, a Maryland native, has worked on transactional and advisory matters at Gibson Dunn since 1996. Recently, she counseled human resources consultancy Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc., on its $3.5 billion merger with rival Towers Perrin Forster & Crosby Inc. Before joining Gibson Dunn, Tsacoumis was a corporate partner in Morrison Foerster's office. She started her legal career at McKenna, Conner & Cuneo—now McKenna Long & Aldridge—after graduating from law school at the University of Virginia.

Tsacoumis will succeed former Williams & Connolly counsel Jane Genster, who's served as the university's general counsel since 2000. Genster is stepping down to become senior counselor to President DeGioia.

DeGioia said in a statement that he's pleased to welcome Tsacoumis to the Georgetown community as she begins the "next phase in her distinguished legal career."

Subscribe to Corporate Counsel