To accomplish our mission, we draw upon the resources of our international law firm to address the myriad legal issues facing educational institutions. The core members of our team are leaders from varied legal disciplines who understand the unique nature and needs of educational institutions. Team members regularly work together to define best practices, counsel clients on critical legal issues, and defend them in courts, arbitrations, mediations, and before accrediting agencies, licensing bodies, and government agencies.

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The Advantage of Broad and Deep Experience in Education

The breadth and depth of our experience in education law distinguish Blumsack & Canzano and give our clients a unique advantage. In addition, we also offer our clients comprehensive legal representation in matters that extend beyond traditional education law.

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Crisis Management

Partnering with experienced attorneys in various legal areas, our Education Team provides comprehensive analysis and counseling during crises facing schools and colleges. Our attorneys work closely with risk managers and communications professionals to identify, assess and develop effective response plans for threats to the safety and welfare of educational communities, especially for matters involving sexual misconduct, threats or acts of violence, and financial malfeasance.

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Title IX and Sexual Discrimination and Misconduct

Protecting students is a natural and important concern of educational institutions and governments. Consequently, we can expect continuing scrutiny and increasing regulation in matters of student safety. When assessing how to keep students safe, colleges and universities are challenged with pressing, sometimes conflicting, demands raised by various constituencies, including students, parents, alumni and community members, government enforcement agencies, and outside interest groups and coalitions. We have worked with educational institutions in multiple capacities when they are faced with claims of sexual misconduct or assault. Our Education Team has the experience, dedication, and sensitivity to assist colleges and universities in responding to each constituency and achieving each institution's particular safety and legal compliance goals.

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Employment of Faculty and Staff

Our Education Team counsels educational institutions on employment policies and practices, including drafting faculty and staff handbooks, training, hiring, layoffs and terminations, internal grievance procedures, leaves of absence, accommodations, visas, immigration issues, and promotions and tenure. The team also defends educational institutions in employment-related cases in court and before federal and state agencies, especially discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and defamation.

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Unions in Higher Education
We assist our education clients in all union matters, including training, union elections, representing clients before the NLRB and in arbitration, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and counseling on day-to-day union matters and legal compliance. Union organizing efforts at colleges and universities are becoming more prevalent. While unions at colleges and universities historically have included campus safety, maintenance, food service workers and sometimes full-time faculty, unionization efforts in recent years have focused on adjuncts. Adjunct organizing is driven by concerns over compensation, benefits, workloads, and job security. As these unionization efforts increase, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continues to scrutinize employer policies and create new laws that challenge traditional views of labor relations.

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Student Affairs
Our Education Team drafts student disciplinary procedures and conduct codes, assists in the revising and updating of student handbooks, and develops student sexual assault prevention guidelines. In addition, we counsel and train student affairs administrators, advise on student abroad programs and provide guidance on student financial aid, Title IX compliance, athletic programs, FERPA and other privacy issues, and many other areas involving students.

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Campus Safety
Campus safety has become one of the foremost concerns of educational institutions. Our Education Team counsels clients on compliance with the Campus Security Act (Clery Act), emergency preparedness, and risk management. We also draft threats to self and others policies and work closely with campus security officers and administrators to ensure best practices. When property damage or injuries to employees, students, or visitors is damaged, our team's seasoned litigators defend clients against negligence and personal injury, including wrongful death, suicide, and other catastrophic loss claims.

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Merging, Acquiring, or Closing Institutions
Educational institutions are confronting increasingly complex financial pressures, including fluctuating enrollments, ever-tightening, and tuition-dependent operating budgets, rising property and labor costs, persistent development issues, and the challenge of obtaining and maintaining federal financial aid. When institutions of higher education face serious financial challenges, it is critically important for their leaders to have experienced legal guidance. Higher education is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the U.S. Consequently, combining or closing educational institutions requires extensive knowledge of regulatory requirements at federal, state, and local levels, as well as with accrediting and licensing agencies. Blumsack & Canzano's Education Team has successfully guided many nonprofit and for-profit educational institutions through acquisitions, mergers, and closings.

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Institutional
Our Education Team understands the unique "business" of operating educational institutions and appreciates campus culture's role in many legal decisions. This sensitivity shapes and drives the legal advice our team provides on a wide variety of institutional issues, including contracts, leases, licensing, intellectual property, distance learning, academic freedom, governance, bylaws, construction, land use, zoning, charitable giving, taxes, foundations and change of control.

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Regulatory Compliance
Our Education Team partners with clients to develop comprehensive legal compliance programs tailored to the particular needs of each institution. Specific compliance projects include legal auditing, defense of state or federal investigations, student financial aid operations, lending programs, recruiter compensation plans, and many other compliance areas. We advise on accreditation, registration, state and federal rulemaking, and lobbying for institution-specific appropriations.

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Athletic Conference Realignment
As a growing number of colleges and universities seek to move from one athletic conference to another, they find themselves considering a multitude of conference realignment legal issues, including those involving conference constitutions and bylaws, media contracts, and the seemingly inevitable threat of litigation. Our Education Team has significant experience in this critical juncture of sports and law. 

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Collegiate Athletics
Our attorneys bring years of hands-on experience advising colleges, universities, and athletic conferences at Division I, II, and III levels. Our national footprint and skills in various legal disciplines enable us to assist institutions and conferences, regardless of the nature of the legal issue or where it arises. Our Education Team concentrates on advising and representing colleges, universities, and athletic conferences concerning the legal issues related to collegiate athletics. We understand that issues with intercollegiate athletics can have broad ramifications for an institution, ranging from Title IX concerns and NCAA compliance issues to private litigation and employment matters. These issues must be addressed in the context of an institution's simultaneous financial and reputational stability concerns. Accordingly, we collaborate with institutions and athletic conferences to pursue the legal results that best achieve their individual goals.