Framroze Virjee to Lead Cal State Legal Department

When Framroze Virjee decided to retire from his job as a partner in the labor and employment practice at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles after 29 years with the firm, he made plans to focus on public service by traveling to Rwanda with his wife to volunteer. However, after a phone call from Timothy White, chancellor of California State University, he realized that he could find a way to give back that was practically in his backyard.

“I immediately had an affinity for [White’s] vision and his plans for CSU,” Virjee told CorpCounsel.com.

Cal State, the world’s largest four-year university system, has named Virjee executive vice chancellor and general counsel to its board of trustees. When he begins work at Cal State’s Long Beach, California, headquarters in January 2014, Virjee will join a team of more than 35 attorneys and paralegals honored by Corporate Counsel as one of the Best Legal Departments for 2013—a distinction that Virjee said helped convince him to accept the new job.

Virjee has a personal connection to California’s public education system as well — he attended the state’s public schools from kindergarten through law school. “I’ve always been a strong proponent of public education,” he said.

And as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers, Virjee gained experience representing educational institutions. One of his clients at the firm was the Los Angeles Unified School District, which he said bears a resemblance to Cal State in that both are sprawling, publically funded systems with large boards and political dynamics.

“But I’ve also worked for 29 years with Fortune 500 companies,” explained Virjee. “With very large banks and financial institutions, with aerospace and retail, and dealt with boards of directors there, CEOs there, that have equally broad geographic footprints, if not broader–national and international. So I think I bring some good experience and perspective to this job.”

Virjee says he is well aware of the large scope of his new job. He will be charged with looking after the interests of 437,000 students, 44,000 faculty and staff, and 23 campuses, each with its own unique character.

“Finding ways to allow for innovation and diversification at these different schools and universities, while still maintaining the hallmark of a single coordinated state university, is a challenge,” he said.

The range of legal matters associated with running a university system as large as Cal State is striking. Virjee said he will be dealing with issues that vary from IP and labor and employment, to taxation and free speech.

Virjee will also be responsible for dealing with numerous constituencies and interest groups that are involved with public university governance—professors, students, labor unions, and the state government, to name a few.

Chancellor White said in a statement that he believes that Virjee is up the challenges ahead.

“Fram distinguished himself in the selection process through not only his extensive legal experience and first-hand knowledge of the state’s educational systems but also through his passion for the university’s mission,” White said. “His professional leadership and service commitments illustrate the value he places on higher education.”