Michigan State University law professor-in-residence Nicholas Wittner gave up plans to teach his dream class on driverless cars and the law in order to accept interim President John Engler’s request that he become the school’s first chief compliance officer last week.

“I really did want to teach that one,” Wittner, a former in-house counsel at General Motors Co. and Nissan North America Inc., told Corporate Counsel Tuesday. “As a brand new class, I had put the work into creating it. But this [compliance] work is so much more important right now, and it’s a full-time job.”