Carol Mauch Amir will continue in her role as secretary of the university.

Carol Mauch Amir has been promoted by USC President Steven B. Sample to the position of general counsel of the university. The appointment was effective March 27 and was announced at the USC trustees conference held March 28-30.

She succeeds Todd Dickey, who has been promoted to senior vice president for administration. Mauch Amir will continue to report to Dickey and also will continue in her role as secretary of the university.

Sample said that he has worked closely with Mauch Amir since she joined the general counsel’s office at USC in 1999.

“Particularly adept at quickly assimilating complex legal issues, she has consistently displayed the keen legal mind, tenacity and creativity required to resolve pressing legal challenges,” he said in the letter announcing her promotion. “She has been instrumental in developing practical and cost-saving approaches to streamline and improve the university’s approach to litigation management, corporate transactions, university grievances and complaints, health care regulatory issues and corporate compliance.

“I am confident that in her new role as general counsel, Carol will continue the excellent legal representation and leadership which has been provided by Todd Dickey over the last decade.”

Mauch Amir said she was excited to take on new challenges. “I’m very pleased with the appointment, and I look forward to continuing the fine reputation of the USC general counsel,” she said.

In her new post, Mauch Amir advises the university’s president, board of trustees and senior administrators in legal matters, heads the university’s legal staff, represents USC in legal proceedings and negotiations, manages litigation for the university, assesses legal risks of university activities and makes policy recommendations to reduce legal risks.

Mauch Amir has been secretary of the university since 2006. In that role, she is responsible for maintaining corporate documents and monitoring corporate filings of USC and its subsidiaries.

The mission of the Office of the General Counsel is to assist USC through its various schools and departments with legal issues and transactions, to educate USC’s administrators and faculty with regard to the laws applicable to USC’s operations, and to assist the university administration and faculty to pursue their objectives and goals with an overall objective of protecting USC from liability.

The office is responsible for addressing all legal issues arising out of the activities of USC, its various schools and departments, and the affiliates it controls.

Mauch Amir came to USC as a university counsel and was named associate general counsel in 2001. She was promoted to USC managing general counsel in 2005 and was elected secretary of the university by the Board of Trustees in 2006. Prior to joining the university, Mauch Amir was an associate at the law firm of Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles, where she specialized in health care related corporate transactions.

She graduated cum laude from the New York University School of Law in 1994 and earned a B.A. in psychology from Wesleyan University in 1990.