Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:
I write to announce my appointment of Felice Rosan to serve as General Counsel, effective January 1, 2023. Felice is currently Deputy General Counsel and will be taking over for Jane Booth, who recently announced her decision to retire at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year. Felice has been an essential partner to Jane, and I am delighted that she will be assuming this leadership role.
Felice joined Columbia’s Office of the General Counsel in 1999. During her time at Columbia, she has distinguished herself as a leader of exceptional character and judgment who has consulted on almost every major issue the University has faced. She led the University’s legal team in negotiations with the city and state with respect to the creation of Columbia’s new campus in Manhattanville and worked tirelessly to ensure that the Community Benefits Agreement tied to that expansion honored our local commitments in Upper Manhattan. More recently, she partnered with our Office of Government and Community Affairs to develop and operationalize the pandemic loan fund for our neighbors in need. She served on the University-wide Steering Committee for Graduate Student Unionization. Felice has long represented Columbia in connection with major gifts, most recently David Geffen’s gift to Columbia Business School. And she was instrumental in the formation of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia and the launch of the Columbia Climate School. Her expertise spans the areas of university governance and policy, tax exempt law, employee and student concerns, charitable giving, and executive compensation, among many others.
Before coming to Columbia, Felice was Vice President and General Counsel for MovieFone, Inc. and was an associate in the general corporate department at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, focusing on mergers, acquisitions, financings, and other corporate transactions. She received her BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania and her JD cum laude from Temple University Beasley School of Law, where she was an editor of the Temple Law Review.
When Felice becomes General Counsel on January 1, 2023, Jane will assume the role of Chief Legal Officer, providing guidance and counsel during this period of transition before her retirement on June 30, 2023. This is an exciting new chapter for Felice, and I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate her on this well-deserved appointment and to thank Jane again for all she has done for Columbia.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger
