José D. Padilla, J.D.
Vice President and General Counsel
José Padilla is vice president and general counsel of DePaul University, which he joined in May of 2005. He works closely with DePaul’s Board of Trustees, its president, provost and other officers. Padilla directs an office of seven distinguished attorneys, drawn from some of the best law schools in the nation and from some of the best law firms in Chicago. Together they provide advice and counsel on a myriad of legal issues, including corporate governance, compliance, canon law, tax law, real estate, bond financing, employment, employee benefits, athletics, litigation, contracts, intellectual property, sponsored research, constitutional law and higher education regulations.
Under his leadership, the Office of the General Counsel instituted a Legal Affairs Education program to provide monthly seminars on topics of interest to its university clients. He also implemented "Mapping the Road Ahead," a program that asks clients to identify their anticipated legal needs in the next six months so that legal issues and solutions can be identified early. Finally, he has instituted the aggressive use of "requests for proposal" to identify external law firms that are both high quality and affordable.
Before joining DePaul, Padilla was an attorney and federal lobbyist for the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). While at IIT, he became general counsel for the IIT State Street Corp., a not-for-profit tax-exempt corporation that constructs and manages university housing.
Padilla has spent 16 years working on federal issues in Washington, D.C. From 1990 to 1993, he was a lawyer/legislative assistant to the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and advised Bentsen on legislation from the Judiciary, Labor, Human Resources, Appropriations and Budget committees.
From 1993 to 1998, Padilla was a senior appointee in the Clinton Administration, serving as the assistant commissioner for Congressional and Public Affairs at the U.S. Customs Service, which was then a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. At Customs, he reported to the commissioner and belonged to the 12-person executive team that managed Customs' 18,000 employees. He developed and executed strategies to meet Customs and Administration objectives such as NAFTA, China MFN and GATT.
Upon returning to Chicago from Washington, Padilla engaged in public policy issues on his own time. He helped represent the University of Michigan before Congress and Hispanic groups with respect to its affirmative action cases before the United States Supreme Court: Gratz and Grutter vs. Bollinger.
Padilla is a 1983 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and is licensed to practice law in Illinois and the District of Columbia. He is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, the Hispanic National Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
He also is a director of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, and a Board Member of Chicago Community in Schools. In Winter 2006, the Latino Law Students Association of the University of Michigan Law School honored Padilla with the annual J.T. Canales Award for distinction as a Latino alumnus of the law school.
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