Higher Education Institutions
Today’s colleges and universities face a diverse set of legal challenges. Our experienced Higher Education Institutions lawyers provide a wide range of legal services to address these challenges, drawing on broad experience gained over decades of counseling institutions of higher education in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Our clients range from regional community colleges to large research universities with complex international operations.
Our lawyers take a multidisciplinary approach to higher education issues. They have experience handling the diverse legal needs that often arise at the university level. We handle the ever-evolving technology and intellectual property-related issues that colleges face. Our lawyers also have experience providing counsel on investments, governance, tax, insurance, and public policy. We help institutions with the range of matters that are unique to them, including providing advice related to academic medical centers and intercollegiate athletics. Our Higher Education Institutions lawyers also deal with health and safety, public policy and lobbying, e-commerce, and fundraising and endowments, among other matters.
In addition, we also are particularly focused on providing counsel to higher education institutions regarding the following areas:
- Intellectual property and technology transfer
- International capabilities
- Government/regulatory matters
- Tax, employee benefits, and investments
Thought Leadership
On 28 June 2024, the US Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturned the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statues.
On 22 December 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments (the final rule) to Rule 206(4)-1 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the Advisers Act) to modernize the regulation of investment adviser advertising and solicitation practices.
On 22 August 2024, the Senate passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) Bill 2024 (the Bill), which requires certain organisations to make mandatory climate-related financial disclosures in their annual reports for financial years commencing after 1 January 2025.
While most of the attention surrounding the Supreme Court’s (the Court) decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo (Loper), overturning the longstanding Chevron doctrine, has focused on the increased potential for successful challenges against agency actions, the decision will impact all stages of the public policy lifecycle—legislation, regulation, and only then litigation.