Kim Taylor appointed Vice President and General Counsel of Duke

July 2, 2024

According to a July 1 announcement by President Vincent Price, attorney Kim Taylor has been appointed vice president and general counsel of the university.

Taylor succeeds Pamela Bernard, who is retiring after 18 years in the position, and will take office on Sept. 1. She was selected through a nationwide search led by committee chair Kerry Abrams and James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke, dean of Duke Law School.

“I am thrilled to join President Price’s leadership team and become a member of the Duke community. Additionally, I am honored and humbled to succeed Pam Bernard as General Counsel,” Taylor said, according to the statement.

Taylor has served as vice president and general counsel at the University of Chicago since August 2014, where she received the university’s John Roger’s Jr. Business Diversity Impact Award for her work promoting diversity and inclusion in hiring practices.

At Duke, her roles will include serving as the university’s chief legal counsel and a member of the president’s cabinet. She will lead Duke’s legal strategy on issues such as “student and employment issues, health law, research issues, tax-exempt organizations, athletics, corporate affairs, and litigation coordination for the university.”

Duke has had to overcome a number of legal obstacles in the past year. In August, the university was sued for discrimination by a female professor who claimed she was paid significantly less than her male colleagues. In September, another lawsuit followed from a “reverse discrimination” activist targeting the Alice M. Baldwin Scholars program. Duke, along with 16 other elite institutions, settled an antitrust case over financial aid in January, with the university agreeing to pay $24 million.

“Kim brings extensive legal expertise and senior leadership experience to Duke, including a decade of service in her current role as vice president and general counsel at the University of Chicago,” Price wrote. “I look forward to her sound legal advice as we continue to navigate an ever-changing legal landscape as this century’s leading university.”

Taylor received a Bachelor of History from the University of California, Berkeley and a Doctor of Laws with honors from the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Before joining UChicago, she worked for 18 years at Kirkland & Ellis and was an equity partner from 2003 to 2011. She was also a partner at Hilton & Bishop from 2012 to 2014.