Sharon H. Cott

As Senior Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel, Sharon H. Cott oversees the wide range of legal issues the Museum faces, from litigation over title to works of art in the collection to negotiations of gifts. She coordinates corporate-governance issues for the Board and its fifteen committees; is responsible for assuring the Museum's compliance with various laws and regulations as well as for its risk-management program and insurance portfolio; and oversees the Museum's archives. She supervises a staff of six attorneys in addition to the law firms that serve as outside counsel and has been Secretary to the Board of Trustees and General Counsel since 1992.

A leader in the field of museum ethics, Cott has served as counsel to the committees of the Association of the Art Museum Directors and the American Alliance of Museums that drafted guidelines related to antiquities and to art confiscated during World War II. She joined The Met in 1988, was previously an associate at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, and is a graduate of Yale Law School and the University of Virginia.