Jennifer Zimbroff

Jennifer Zimbroff holds two roles at Stanford University. She is Deputy General Counsel and Managing Attorney in Stanford's Office of the General Counsel, and she serves as Chief Legal Officer for Stanford Athletics.^[3] She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2008 and holds an active license (Bar No. 260681).^[1] Her work spans higher education law and college athletics law, including university governance, labor and employment matters, litigation management, regulatory compliance, and antitrust guidance for academic institutions.

As Chief Legal Officer for Stanford Athletics, Zimbroff oversees the department's legal affairs and advises athletics leadership on legal, regulatory, business, operational, and risk-related matters.^[3] The role sits at the center of the issues reshaping college sports — athlete name, image, and likeness rights, revenue sharing, employment classification, conference realignment, media and sponsorship agreements, and Title IX compliance — for a department that fields 36 varsity teams and competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In the Office of the General Counsel, Zimbroff serves as Managing Attorney alongside her Deputy General Counsel role, a combination that pairs substantive legal work with responsibility for how the office runs.^[2] She joined Stanford in 2014. She previously served as Assistant University Counsel in Princeton University's Office of the General Counsel, and before that practiced labor and employment law at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP and litigation at Latham & Watkins LLP, both in Los Angeles.^[3]

Zimbroff earned her B.A. with honors from Stanford University and her J.D. from Duke University School of Law, where she served as an extern in the Duke University Office of Counsel.^[3] Her career has stayed within higher education law since she left private practice, giving her more than a decade of in-house university counsel experience across two private research institutions.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) for the 2025–2028 term.^[4] NACUA is the principal professional association for higher education lawyers, and its board is drawn from senior counsel at member institutions. Zimbroff has also written on antitrust exposure in higher education: she authored a NACUA NOTES analysis of antitrust issues affecting colleges and universities in 2015,^[6] and her office distributes antitrust guidelines to the Stanford community, most recently in a December 2024 guidance memorandum.^[5]

Recognition

• Board of Directors (2025–2028 term) — National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) (2025) ^[4]

Publications

• “Antitrust Guidelines (guidance memorandum)”, Stanford University Office of the General Counsel (2024)
• “Antitrust Issues Affecting Colleges and Universities (NACUA NOTES, Vol. 13 No. 3)”, National Association of College and University Attorneys (2015)