Art M. Lee Appointed SBU Chief Campus Counsel

Art M. Lee has been appointed Stony Brook University chief campus counsel effective January 15, following a competitive national search.

President Andrea Goldsmith announced the appointment in a message to the campus community on January 9. Lee joins Stony Brook with nearly 30 years of higher education experience, most recently at the University of Arizona where he oversaw the legal portfolio of a major public R1 institution, including its academic medical center.

As a member of the SUNY Office of General Counsel, Lee will report to Goldsmith and Kapil Longani, SUNY’s senior vice chancellor for legal affairs and general counsel. Lee will supervise the SUNY Stony Brook University Office of General Counsel (OGC) regional office, which provides legal services to the campus as well as to Stony Brook Medicine and its health sciences schools and hospitals and the Long Island State Veterans Home in collaboration with campus partners and external stakeholders.

“Art’s combination of higher education and healthcare legal expertise along with his collaborative leadership are well-suited to advancing Stony Brook’s mission,” Goldsmith said. “As Art settles into this role, I am certain that he will contribute meaningfully to Stony Brook’s continued growth and success.”

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining an exemplary team of attorneys in supporting a pre-eminent institution of higher education, The State University of New York at Stony Brook,” said Lee. “I am looking forward to getting to know the Stony Brook community and to be helping advance President Goldsmith’s bold vision and objectives for the future of Stony Brook University.”

While at the University of Arizona, Lee served for more than a decade in the Office of the General Counsel as the deputy general counsel and since 2021 as the vice president and deputy general counsel. He advised university leadership across a broad spectrum of complex legal and administrative matters. His leadership responsibilities included providing counsel to the University of Arizona Health Sciences, one of the premier academic medical centers in the southwestern United States.

Prior to the University of Arizona, Lee served in general counsel positions at Arizona State University and the University of Colorado. He received his JD from the University of Colorado School of Law and his BA in Politics, Economics, Rhetoric and Law from the University of Chicago.