Less than a month on the job and Robert Young Jr., Michigan State University’s new general counsel, finds himself in a tough legal dilemma over whether to waive the school’s attorney- client privilege.

Young told Corporate Counsel on Thursday the waiver request from a state-appointed special counsel was “absurd.” He said it implies that he and the university’s outside lawyers from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Miller Canfield would risk their reputations by “cheating” on deciding what was privileged.