"Do we need to talk to our lawyers about this?" "What do the attorneys say?" "Why didn't you get the lawyers involved before now?" Just about every department chair and dean, certainly every provost and president, and an ever-increasing number of faculty find themselves asking—or being asked—such questions. Dealing with issues ranging from academic freedom to job security and faculty discipline, lawyers, legal requirements, and lawsuits has become an established part of the apparatus of American higher education. Higher Education Law was written to help faculty and administrators navigate critical legal issues and avoid potential legal pitfalls. Drawing on his experience as university counsel, administrator, and teacher at a number of institutions, Steven G. Poskanzer explains the law as it pertains to faculty activities both inside and outside the academy, including faculty roles as scholars, teachers, and members of institutional communities, as well as employees and public citizens. In each of these areas, he expands his discussion of cases and decisions to set out his own views both on the current status of the law and how it is likely to evolve.

Who owns inventions developed at US research universities? And who benefits from the current ownership regime? To answer these questions, Anna Marion Bieri discusses the transformation which has taken place in academia in regard to the involvement and commercialisation of patents and the effect university patenting has had on the academic mission and the scientific commons. Special emphasis is placed on the history and implementation of the Bayh-Dole Act - a widely-discussed law which facilitated the patenting and commercialisation of federally funded university inventions. On this basis, the author explores who should benefit from university inventions and how the current ownership regime should be modified to achieve this purpose. Finally, Anna Marion Bieri proposes that universities employ patents strategically in accordance with their research strengths.