General Counsel Zumwalt to retire after 26 years

Vice President and General Counsel Debra Zumwalt J.D. ’79 is retiring, the University announced in January.

During her 26-year tenure, Zumwalt drastically expanded the Office of the General Counsel, which has come to represent most aspects of the Stanford community. According to the Stanford Report, Stanford’s legal office employed just four full-time workers when Zumwalt first arrived. Today, it employs more than 40 attorneys and staff members, a team largely built by Zumwalt. 

As general counsel, she represented the University amid accusations of Stanford’s improper use of research funds, several sexual assault and discrimination scandals at Stanford Medicine, the Hoover Institution and the Graduate School of Business.

Zumwalt’s Office also faced scrutiny over university actions. A civil wrongful-death complaint filed by Katie Meyer’s parents in Santa Clara County Superior Court in Nov. 2022 alleged that Zumwalt has responsibility for the Office of Community Standards (OCS) process that “breached the standard of care owed to Katie.” Stanford swiftly denied the allegations that it bears responsibility for Meyer’s death. The University and Meyer family settled the ongoing legal dispute last week.

After beginning her legal journey at Stanford Law School (SLS), she joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and eventually became a partner at the firm. 

Zumwalt connects her experience at SLS with developing her legal foundation. “I am very grateful for the education I received at Stanford Law School, which allowed me to do all the interesting legal work I have done in the last 46 years, both at Stanford and in a law firm,” she wrote in an email to The Daily. 

In 1993, Zumwalt re-joined the Stanford community, first as a senior university counsel, and later as general counsel in 2000. In addition to advising the University, Zumwalt also serves on the boards of Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford Management Company and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

“[Our] team has developed to meet the needs of the university and the hospitals, which have grown very very significantly. We strive to provide timely responses to all of our clients, who are very complimentary of the work our lawyers do,” wrote Zumwalt.

She referenced the continuous search for additional lawyers in the University’s legal counsel as evidence of demand for the Office’s work. “They just want us to hire more lawyers (which we are doing),” Zumwalt wrote.

Zumwalt credits her vision of an in-house legal team to one of her early experiences, where she was forced to find outside legal assistance when Stanford had to unwind a hospital merger with U.C. San Francisco. 

“When I first came as the [general counsel]… most of the legal work was done by outside counsel. I had to staff up to provide the best service to the university and save money by using inside counsel whenever we could,” wrote Zumwalt.

University president Jonathan Levin ’94 praised Zumwalt’s contribution to the university in an email to The Daily.

“Over the years, Debra and her team have been involved in every corner of the university… She has been tireless in helping to solve problems” Levin wrote.

Zumwalt’s colleagues echoed the praise, describing the legal team that she built. 

“What has impacted me most is the culture she’s created within the Office of General Counsel,” Development Legal Counsel Bryan Kirk wrote in an email to the Daily. “There’s a real culture of collaboration, helpfulness and practical thinking. It’s present within the office and in how the office supports the university.”

Since the beginning of the Trump administration in 2025, Zumwalt has also represented the University in cases against the federal government. According to Zumwalt, the University’s involvement in such cases — like those against funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and restrictions on international student visas — was sparked by “Executive Orders, proclamations and actions taken that have serious effects on universities.” 

Zumwalt referenced the University’s support of an amicus brief challenging the federal government’s refusal to provide foreign Harvard students with visas as evidence of the University’s commitment to institutional equality. “Our goals are aligned with those of our peers, which is to be treated fairly under the law and be allowed to continue our mission of providing excellent education, research and healthcare to make the world better,” she said. 

Zumwalt is no stranger in facing the Trump administration. During Trump’s first term, the University drew backlash after it released and later withdrew a memo following the executive order titled “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” During this time, Stanford also joined an amicus brief challenging Trump’s travel ban. 

According to the Report, a search committee chaired by Provost Jenny Martinez and professor emeritus of law Jay Mitchell ’80  will be tasked with appointing Stanford’s next general counsel. 

“I am sure that whoever replaces me as General Counsel will be excellent and that person will be fortunate to have a great team of attorneys and staff supporting them,” Zumwalt wrote. 

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