Announcing DU's Interim VC for Legal Affairs and General Counsel

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,

I am very pleased to share the news that Dan Wilkerson will be joining us as Interim Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and General Counsel, effective December 9. This will give Dan and Paul Chan a couple of weeks to work together before Paul officially departs DU at the end of December.

Dan is the former Vice President, University Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Regents for the University of Colorado System. He retired from that position in 2012.  He has served in numerous interim legal roles for CU since his retirement, including leading the legal office in 2020 through the onset of COVID-19. Most recently, Dan has been the Director of Special Projects at the Marcus Institute for Brain Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He has also been working as a legal consultant for the Association of American Medical Colleges since 2012.  

Needless to say, Dan’s extensive legal experience in higher ed and other sectors will make him a terrific fit for DU as we continue to search for our permanent Vice Chancellor. At Paul’s request, Dan also conducted an external review of the Office of General Counsel a few years ago. He is intimately familiar with the office, and with DU more broadly.

The search for Paul’s successor proceeds apace with an extremely strong and diverse candidate pool. We anticipate being able to recruit a new Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and General Counsel by mid-to-late winter and Dan’s interim service will help us do so seamlessly.

I know you’ll help me welcome Dan when he joins us next month. For now, I look forward to celebrating Paul’s exceptional service to DU later this afternoon (4-5:30 pm) in the Renaissance Room of the Mary Reed Building. I hope to see you there.  

Sincerely,

Jeremy Haefner

Chancellor