Led by Cliff S. Schneider, Cohen Schneider LLP's education law practice provides representation and counsel to a wide range of education organizations including charter schools, private schools, educational management organizations, charter management organizations and educational service providers.
- Charter Schools
- Educational Service Providers
- General Counsel Services
- Intellectual Property
- Compliance & Governmental Relations
Charter Schools
Charter Schools, in particular, face a myriad of unique legal issues that require the involvement of experienced counsel well versed in charter law and familiar with the various local and state regulatory agencies that govern every aspect of a charter school's operations. Attorneys at Cohen Schneider LLP have provided guidance to charter schools throughout the country and are expert in the issues that face charter boards during their formation, governance of the charter school, and the school law issues that schools face each and every day they operate. Proper preparation, creation of processes, and documentation are key to a charter school's success in regards to legal compliance. Cohen Schneider LLP provides the counsel and guidance needed to achieve this goal.
Our Services include:
- Charter Applications and Petitions
- Corporate documents (e.g. bylaws)
- Board training
- Counsel on Board governance
- Real estate issues
- Compliance and regulatory affairs
- Representation before authorizer
- General counsel services to Board regarding school operations (e.g. employment, contracts, etc)
Educational Service Providers
Businesses, consultants, support organizations and other entities that provide service to or support charter schools, private schools and school districts face unique issues and circumstances that differ substantially from doing business with other private and governmental clients. Cohen Schneider LLP represents several educational service providers throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom, and has counseled its clients through numerous transactions involving local, state and federal agencies, partnerships with other service providers and individual schools.
Our services include:
- Negotiation of basic and complex multi-party contracts, memorandum of understanding, service agreements and management agreements
- Advocacy before local, state and federal officials
- General counsel services
- Intellectual property counsel
- Regulatory affairs
- Compliance
General Counsel Services
As with any business, individual schools, service providers and other entities in the education space encounter a myriad of legal issues in their operations. From basic corporate governance to employment issues and intellectual property, Cohen Schneider LLP provides general legal services to education-related entities by combining its expertise in education law with the more traditional disciplines to offer its clients with a full service capacity.
Our services include:
- Contract review and negotiation
- Employment matters
- Intellectual property identification and protection
- Business disputes
- Internal real estate matters (e.g. office/store leases)
- Real estate counsel on business deals (e.g. purchase and sale of property for business transactions)
- Regulatory compliance
- Purchase and Sale of businesses or business interests
Intellectual Property
Both education service providers and schools themselves handle intellectual property on a daily basis and need to be versed in the legal issues that are present in education. As counsel to schools and businesses in the education space, Cohen Schneider LLP routinely advises its clients regarding the creation, protection, use and licensing of their own and others' intellectual property.
Our services include:
- Training on intellectual property law for the teacher, school and educational service provider
- Trademark & Copyright registration
- Counsel on content creation for written, electronic and audio/video works
- Creation and negotiation of license and permission agreements
- Website content review and protection
- Website privacy and terms of use notices
- Work-for-hire agreements with independent contractors
- Review of employment agreements, offer letters and employee manuals for IP notices
Compliance & Governmental Relations
As with any other highly regulated space, schools and those providing services to schools need to be aware of the laws and regulations affecting their operations, as well as the role that elected legislators, appointed officials, boards of education and other governmental agencies play in this area. Understanding how these entities affect one's operations-and having a sound compliance program- will provide schools and service providers the best possible means to maintain a positive working relationship with government officials. Cohen Schneider LLP regularly counsels clients regarding compliance and governmental relations by providing the following services:
- Creation and maintenance of a compliance program
- Appearance before regulatory agencies
- Advocacy before elected and appointed officials
- Compliance training
- Charter Board training
- Internal investigations
