Dorothy Robinson '72

Dorothy Robinson ‘72 has four decades of experience in higher education law and administrative leadership. She served at Yale University for 37 years, including as vice president and general counsel, and as counselor to the president. After retiring from Yale, she was of counsel, and then senior of counsel at K&L Gates LLP in the tax-exempt organizations and higher education practices from 2016-2025.

Robinson at present is a board director of Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia (chair as of October, 2026), a director of Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformation (Vice Chair) and a member of Yale Peabody Museum Leadership Council; and she has served as a trustee of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association Inc., a director of TIAA Bank, FSB, and a director of Newark Public Radio (WBGO). She also wrote for Trusteeship Magazine of the Association of Governing Boards for several years. 

Robinson earned a B.A. with honors in economics at Swarthmore and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She served on Swarthmore’s Alumni Council from 1999 to 2002.