Frequently Asked Questions

Absent a conflict of interest, the Office of the General Counsel will advise and represent administrators, faculty and staff when they act within the scope of their employment, on issues impacting the University. In practice, the University’s General Counsel does not represent employees or students on personal matters or on matters that represent a conflict with the University’s interests.

Where additional or specialized legal expertise may be required, our office will evaluate and retain the use of outside counsel. All retention of outside legal counsel must be handled through the Office of the General Counsel.

Determining when the attorney-client privilege applies, and when it does not, to communications made for the purpose of seeking legal advice from the University’s General Counsel can be complicated. To protect the best interests of the University, University personnel should consult the University’s Office of the General Counsel on how to handle a particular situation. General information about attorney-client privilege, and its situation-specific application, can be found here:

Attorney-Client Privilege Information

Any and all documents that legally bind the University must be reviewed by the Office of the General Counsel prior to signature. These include contracts, agreements, addendums, renewals, letter agreements, memorandums of understanding, leases, and purchase orders, including online terms and website click-through agreements. Note that only a small number of University personnel have authority under the Signature Authorization Policy sign contract documents, and the Office of the General Counsel will facilitate the signing process after completing the review of the contract documents. 

Please see Contract Review FAQs for more information. 

How are contract documents submitted to the Office of the General Counsel? 

The contract owner or department administrator should upload the contract documents – whether a new contract, or a renewal, extension or amendment – to the iContracts system. (For access to iContracts, please contact Procurement.) All information requested on the Contract Review Basic Checklist must be correctly entered in the contract documents prior to submitting via iContracts. 

Once in iContracts, contract documents will be reviewed by applicable departments (e.g., the Office of Information Technology) and the Office of the General Counsel. See the Contract Review FAQs for more information.

Responses are time sensitive, please immediately email the OGC at ogc@sju.edu or call the office at 610-660-3140.

The Office of General Counsel does not currently provide Notary Services.