Offices of university general counsel, at least in the Southeast, are swirling in the news. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and its in-state rival, North Carolina State University, will both see new general counsel this year.

Meanwhile, the relatively new GC at the University of Florida, Amy Hass, faces a First Amendment lawsuit filed by a conservative student group against the school.

At UNC, general counsel Mark Merritt left his position at the end of 2018, and as of Tuesday no replacement has been named.

Merritt was hired in September 2016 when the school was mired in several legal battles related to admissions practices, to an NCAA academic-athletic scandal, and to a state versus the U.S. Department of Justice fight over transgender bathrooms.

A statement from UNC Chancellor Carol Folt and Provost Bob Blouin said, “Since joining the University in 2016, Mark has led us through some of the most pressing legal challenges in Carolina's history, including resolutions with the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights about our Title IX program.”

Merritt will return to Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, a Charlotte law firm where he worked as a litigator for 33 years, according to a story in the university newspaper, the Daily Tarheel.

“While I look forward to returning to a place that I know and love, I've enjoyed my time here tremendously, made many good friends, and contributed my best to furthering the mission of Carolina,” Merritt said in a statement, according to the newspaper.

A short distance away in Raleigh, part of North Carolina's famed research triangle, NC State is waiting for its new general counsel to take office Feb. 1. The school announced last November that Allison Newhart would leave her post as associate GC at Pennsylvania State University to become vice chancellor and general counsel at NC State.

At Penn State, Newhart focused on labor and employment matters, student affairs, litigation, athletics and Title IX and Clery Act compliance.

Prior to joining Penn State in 2013, Newhart had been a labor and employment associate at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr in Philadelphia for over seven years, representing and counseling colleges and universities.

Meanwhile the University of Florida's Hass, who has held her GC post for about eight months, may be consulting her own outside counsel to oppose the First Amendment suit filed in late December by the university chapter of Young Americans for Freedom.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, accuses the school of denying the group access to the mandatory student fees which the university uses to fund student organizations and activities.

While many student groups are denied funding, the suit claims the school changed its rules to disqualify Young Americans for Freedom from receiving funding for speakers fees and honoraria, making it difficult to express its viewpoints on campus.

The group is represented by Travis Barham of the Alliance Defending Freedom based in Lawrenceville, Georgia. As of Tuesday, the court docket did not list any university defense counsel yet.

Young Americans for Freedom Associate General Counsel Mark Trammell said in a statement from the alliance, “The YAF chapter deserves the same equal access to university resources as every other student organization on campus. It is completely inappropriate for the University of Florida to treat students differently because of their beliefs. The purpose of [the] lawsuit is to remedy this inequity.”

University spokeswoman Margot Winick said Tuesday the school would not comment on the litigation.

In an earlier statement regarding the controversy, Winick told Campus Reform, a national college news site, “The University of Florida is committed to upholding the First Amendment right to free speech and promoting a campus community that is open to all points of view.”