Art M. Lee Appointed Chief Campus Counsel
January 9, 2026
Dear Stony Brook Campus Community,
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Art M. Lee as chief campus counsel effective January 15, 2026, following a competitive national search. Art joins the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook with nearly 30 years of higher education experience, most recently at the University of Arizona where he oversaw the legal portfolio of a major public R1 institution, including its academic medical center.
As a member of the SUNY Office of General Counsel, Art will report to me and Kapil Longani, SUNY’s senior vice chancellor for legal affairs and general counsel. In his role, Art will supervise the SUNY Stony Brook University Office of General Counsel (OGC) regional office, which provides legal services to the campus as well as to Stony Brook Medicine and its health sciences schools and hospitals and the Long Island State Veterans Home in collaboration with campus partners and external stakeholders.
While at the University of Arizona, Art served for more than a decade in the Office of the General Counsel as the deputy general counsel and since 2021 as the vice president and deputy general counsel. He advised university leadership across a broad spectrum of complex legal and administrative matters. His leadership responsibilities included providing counsel to the University of Arizona Health Sciences, one of the premier academic medical centers in the southwestern United States.
Prior to the University of Arizona, Art served in general counsel positions at Arizona State University and the University of Colorado. He received his JD from the University of Colorado School of Law and his BA in Politics, Economics, Rhetoric and Law from the University of Chicago.
I would like to thank Jackie Weisman for serving as Stony Brook’s interim chief campus counsel since January 2025. In recognition of her outstanding contributions and her leadership of the office during this period, Jackie will be appointed as associate chief campus counsel. Throughout her interim service, Jackie has provided steady leadership and exceptional counsel to me, the campus, and SUNY. We are very fortunate to have Jackie on our team. I would also like to express my gratitude to the search committee for providing their time and expertise throughout this process.
From my conversations with Art, I am confident he will provide thoughtful counsel to our leadership team and will be a strong partner in advancing our excellence across all dimensions of research, education, clinical care, innovation and service. Art’s combination of higher education and healthcare legal expertise along with his collaborative leadership are well-suited to advancing Stony Brook’s mission.
As Art settles into this role, I am certain that he will contribute meaningfully to Stony Brook’s continued growth and success. Please join me in extending a very warm Seawolf welcome to Art as he joins our community next week.
Sincerely,
Andrea Goldsmith
President