Deborah G. Solmor is the General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at TCS Education System, a nonprofit system of colleges and universities advancing student success and community impact in higher education. TCS’s institutions include the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Saybrook University, Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School, the Colleges of Law and the Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Deborah leads the legal and compliance functions within this innovative model that focuses on supporting institutions whose missions are to provide student enrichment and community impact. Prior to joining TCS, she served as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Litigation and Chief Compliance Officer at Perdoceo Education Corporation, a publicly traded provider of post-secondary education.
In addition to being a highly adaptable and strategic business partner, Deborah is also a seasoned litigator. Prior to moving in-house, she spent many years as Counsel at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP where her practice focused on complex commercial and consumer litigation. Deborah is a CCEP certified compliance professional and is often invited to speak on topics including best practices in regulatory and internal investigations as well as issues related to compliance and marketing in higher education. In 2019 and again in 2021 Deborah was included as a Crain’s Chicago Business Notable General Counsel. She holds a Juris Doctor from the DePaul University College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Northwestern University.
Deborah is passionate about supporting the networking and development of women lawyers. From 2014 to 2022 she co-chaired the in-house counsel committee of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois. She is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Women’s General Counsel Network and the Advisory Board of the Centerforce Diversity in Law Conferences. In 2019, she founded a program called Ready Set GC which is focused on creating content and networking opportunities for women who are new to the general counsel role. To date, the program has made stops in Chicago, Atlanta and New York.
