Terry Billups

Terry M. Billups serves as the Chief General Counsel of Legal Affairs and Risk/Safety Management for the Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA). As Chief General Counsel, Billups serves as a visionary member of the Executive Leadership Team and provides strategic counsel and leadership on legal, business, and operational matters to advance CMHA’s mission and strategy for both internal and external stakeholders. As CMHA’s lead attorney, he provides advice and counsel on a wide array of legal matters across all aspects of CMHA’s operations. He also manages and directs the day-to-day efforts of the legal staff, risk and safety management staff, and all related support personnel. Billups is responsible for the selection and oversight of outside counsel, when needed, and serves as the liaison between outside counsel, in-house counsel, and each of CMHA’s departments. Before joining CMHA, Billups was the founder and principal owner of Billups Law, LLC, where he provided a full range of legal and investigative services focusing primarily on labor & employment matters, K-12 and higher education school law matters, contract negotiations and disputes, litigation under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and workplace investigations. Prior to starting his own legal practice, Billups served as the Chief General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Ursuline College, where he created and developed the Office of Legal Counsel and the stand-alone Office of Compliance and served as the College’s first full-time in-house counsel.

In his role, he was responsible for all aspects of the College’s legal affairs, including institutional policy development, contract negotiations and review, management of all College-related litigation, and counseling and advising the President of the College, the Board of Trustees, and other College officials on a wide array of legal matters affecting institutions of higher education. Billups received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Juris Doctorate Degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. After law school, he completed a federal judicial clerkship for the Honorable Joe Billy McDade of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. Prior to attending law school, Billups played professional football in the National Football League (NFL) for the New England Patriots, the Miami Dolphins, and the Dallas Cowboys. He also played in the inaugural season of the XFL for the World Champion Los Angeles Xtreme.

Aside from his role with CMHA, Billups serves on a number of non-profit Boards and Committees, including the Ginn Academy of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni Association (CMLAA), and the CSU Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Name Committee. He is admitted to practice law in the State of Ohio, the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. Billups is a member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association, and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). He is also a member of the 2008 Kaleidoscope Magazine’s Forty Under Forty Club in recognition of young African American professionals who have distinguished themselves in their industry and community.