Florida A&M University has announced attorney Iris A. Elijah as deputy general counsel. Elijah, who previously worked as an assistant general counsel in the FAMU General Counsel’s Office nearly a decade ago, returned in November.
“The Office of the General Counsel is excited to welcome Attorney Elijah back to FAMU,” said Vice President and General Counsel D. Denise Wallace. “She brings a wealth of legal experiences to the office, having worked at the Board of Governors, most recently as an attorney for Florida International University (FIU), and as the former president of the Young Lawyers Division of The Florida Bar, which consisted of 23,000 young lawyers across the state. Ms. Elijah’s area of focus will be, among other things, Athletics, and Board Governance.”
A member of the Florida Bar and Massachusetts Bar, Elijah was an associate general counsel at FIU in Miami for five years. Before that, she was an assistant general counsel for the Florida Board of Governors. She held a similar title at FAMU from 2013 to 2015.
“I am humbled to return to Florida A&M University, where a strong foundation to my legal career was developed in the General Counsel’s Office,” Elijah said. “Florida A&M University has been an integral part of my life since I was a child, as my mother and father are alumni, and now I have the opportunity to again positively impact the lives of our community and future leaders.”
Elijah earned a bachelor’s from the University of South Florida and her law degree from Florida International University in 2011.