Brandon E. Roach was appointed Vice President & Robert K. Johnson General Counsel at the University of Notre Dame on June 1, 2025. As the University’s chief legal counsel, Roach oversees the Office of General Counsel, serves as corporate secretary for the University, and advises the President, Board of Trustees, and other senior leaders on significant strategic and legal matters.
Roach assumed the general counsel role after serving in the Office of General Counsel for 15 years. As assistant, associate, and then executive associate general counsel, he designed and implemented the University’s compliance framework, supported the Department of Development and Department of Athletics during significant periods of transition and growth, and served as principal counsel for the Office of the Provost. Prior to joining the Office of General Counsel, Mr. Roach was senior adviser to the provost. In that role, he coordinated strategic academic initiatives in collaboration with associate provosts, deans, department chairs, and other leaders, and advised the provost on the development of academic and University policy.
Roach studied government and sociology at Notre Dame, graduating summa cum laude in 1999. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and a member of its admissions committee. He clerked for Judge Julia Smith Gibbons of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, from 2003 to 2004, and later worked as an associate in the appellate group of a major Houston law firm.
Roach was born and raised in Louisiana. His wife, Clare, earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Notre Dame, the latter as a graduate teaching fellow with the University’s Alliance for Catholic Education. She currently serves as associate director of the Notre Dame Robinson Community Learning Center. They have four children—three sons and a daughter.