For years, McGuireWoods has crafted solutions locally and nationally for hundreds of institutions of higher education, public and private K-12 schools, charter schools, school boards, statewide organizations, foundations and endowments. While many of these groups share similar legal needs, our interdisciplinary education team recognizes that the legislative and regulatory environment presents challenges that require focused, client-specific solutions. We’re skilled in addressing every type of legal issue these institutions face.

We help institutions prevent and confront challenges through proactive legal compliance audits. Our lawyers view and address issues and constituent demands comprehensively, whether negotiating with professors who want a stronger voice in governance, students requesting disciplinary rule changes or an accrediting association seeking updates in curricula.

McGuireWoods counsels boards of trustees and institutions on Title IX and campus sexual misconduct, corporate governance, investment management, vendor management, public finance, tax, employee benefits, executive compensation, financial aid and lending, student health, privacy, personal conduct and safety, campus security and immigration.

In the research and development arena, we protect and defend intellectual property and identify and implement effective technology transfers. We advise our higher education clients in connection with the creation of business incubators and centers of innovation, and the ethical and regulatory issues that confront their institutional review boards.

The education team assists with claims related to labor and employment, tenure, religious affiliation and their campus police departments. We represent our institutional clients and athletic conference in athletics matters and investigations of allegations of NCAA rule violations. In addition, we assist our clients on crisis and advocacy communications, government relations and public policy.

Our partners include:

  • A past Virginia secretary of education
  • A former chairman of the Virginia State Council on Higher Education
  • A member of the Maryland Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s Higher Education Transition Group
  • Current and former members and chairs of public and private colleges’ boards of trustees
  • Current and former rectors and chairs of the boards of trustees of major colleges and universities
  • A former chair of a university sponsored center of innovation

One of our partners served as an adjunct professor for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s graduate program in education, and several teach a course at Washington & Lee University on the law of higher education.

Additionally, a team member served as vice chair of the American Bar Association’s Section on Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Education Committee. A dozen McGuireWoods attorneys are members of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), the premier organization in the field of higher education law.

Team Leaders

Full Team
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