Robert E. Norton II

Biography

Robert E. Norton assumed the role of Vice President and General Counsel of Hillsdale College in September 2014. He oversees the legal and regulatory needs of the College, and also works in the area of planned giving, trusts, and other fundraising efforts. Additionally, he teaches a course at Hillsdale on negotiations.

Norton received his B.B.S. from Walsh College and his J.D. from the University of Michigan. Before joining the College, Norton served as an officer and vice president for external relations at the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he developed the Bradley Impact Fund, the first conservative donor advised fund of its kind. Prior to his work at the Bradley Foundation, he was assistant general counsel at Chrysler, as well as in-house counsel for various automotive suppliers. He began his career at the Butzel Long law firm in Detroit, Michigan. He has taught law at Cooley Law School, Rochester College, and Madonna College, and lectured at the University of Michigan Law School and in its MBA program. He has been published in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics and on National Review Online.

Norton and his wife Kathy have three children, one of whom is a Hillsdale College graduate.