Obtaining Services from the Office of General Counsel

STAFF: All Requests for legal advice must be made with the approval of the appropriate Vice President or Associate/Assistant Vice President.

FACULTY: All requests for legal advice must be made with the approval of the appropriate Dean, Associate/Assistant Dean, Provost or Vice Provost.

Legal Services of Eastern Michigan 1-800-322-9142

The Office of General Counsel does not provide legal advice, nor do we represent CMU students.

Only the General Counsel may hire or retain an attorney for any purpose, and the General Counsel must approve all payments to attorneys. Departments or offices that wish to hire an attorney for any purpose must contact the general counsel prior to any work being performed. The only exception to this policy is attorneys that are retained to instruct classes and give public presentations.

Except for routine Veterans Administration personnel and United States military security checks, investigators must be immediately referred to the Risk Manager or General Counsel. Such investigators include, but are not limited to, insurance investigators, civil rights investigators, safety investigators, representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, etc.

Records - Subpoenas for records require response within specific time periods and are governed by complex laws regarding their disclosure. It is imperative that all subpoenas be immediately forwarded to the Office of General Counsel for handling.

Appearance in Court - Employees receiving a subpoena to testify in court are encouraged to contact the Office of General Counsel with questions they may have on general trial procedure and testimony.

The Associate General Counsel is the University's Freedom of Information Officer. An employee or office receiving a FOIA request should forward the request and/or contact the Office of General Counsel as soon as possible. A request received by email may be forwarded to foiarequest@cmich.edu.


The Freedom of Information Act requires the university to respond to requests within 5 business days. More information regarding the university's handling of these requests is found in the Freedom of Information Act Processing Summary, Procedures and Guidelines and available in the university's Administrative Policies, Procedures and Guidelines, policy 3-20. The link to policies is in the navigation pane.

The Office of General Counsel maintains a summary of Central Michigan University’s procedures and guidelines for processing FOIA request. The summary can be found here:Freedom of Information Act Processing Summary.

Requests for information about university employees or students are to be forwarded to the Office of General Counsel for handling.