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Industries Education

Overview

We represent colleges, universities, secondary schools, charter schools, research foundations, and academic medical centers. These institutions confront challenges daily, many with far-reaching legal and financial implications. From preeminent national universities to regional day schools, Hinckley Allen has a century-long tradition of guiding our clients through their most critical matters.

Multidisciplinary Expertise

We assist trustees and governing committees on strategy, including serving as outside general counsel, advising school leaders on tax-exempt and taxable financings and real estate, and representing schools on disciplinary matters, student and faculty issues, misconduct allegations, and internal investigations. From sensitive risk management to routine contract drafting, our team provides a wide range of practical, timely advice to clients. Our multidisciplinary approach includes expert tax, employment, nonprofit, and health care attorneys.

Our specialties include advising schools on financial, labor and employment, intellectual property, environmental, and real estate matters. We offer guidance on ever-changing regulatory, technology, and tax matters, manage issues that arise in the course of constructing campus projects, and negotiate employment and service-provider contracts. We also counsel on Title IX, health care, privacy and data protection, debt and bond finance, online and distance learning, and issues of equity and academic honesty.

Areas We Serve

Employment

Our team represents colleges, universities and their administrators on labor and employment-related issues, including hiring, layoffs, student and faculty contracts, handbooks, discipline, terminations, and tenure. We negotiate employment agreements, incentive and deferred compensation agreements, and assist in drafting and revising workplace policies and practices, as well as offer faculty and administrator training programs. Our lawyers are also experienced in successfully defending academic institutions in complex wage and hour, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful discharge, Family and Medical Leave Act, and sexual harassment cases.

Real Estate; Construction

Our education team includes real estate environmental, land use and zoning lawyers experienced in assisting academic institutions in the financing, acquisition, development, expansion, leasing, and disposition of properties, buildings, and facilities. We advocate for educational entities in securing community support for development projects, represent them in public hearings, and help them obtain all necessary permits and approvals. Our team also offers guidance in the planning, design, and construction of facilities and has advised on a number of alternative energy projects, including solar power systems for schools, power purchase agreements, and related tax incentives.

Health Care

We advise schools and academic medical institutions regarding their health center operations, medical and mental healthcare-related issues, HIPAA, HiTECH, patient privacy concerns, and disability-related matters.

Tax-Exempt Finance

Our team has helped secure billions of dollars in tax-exempt bond financing for school-operated educational facilities.

Investigations

We assist schools in conducting internal investigations and have represented them before state and federal regulators regarding compliance issues. Our experience also includes providing advice and guidance to students (and families) of a New England college who are facing disciplinary hearings stemming from the students’ alleged failure to adhere to the college’s COVID-19-related residential and student life rules.

Research Integrity & Conflicts of Interest

We advise universities and academic medical centers on a variety of multi-disciplinary concerns ranging from allegations of research misconduct and data manipulation to potential violations of the False Claims Act and concerns for undue foreign influence, to managing financial and other conflicts of interest, to disputes over ownership of intellectual property. Our team helps ensure that policies are up to date and compliant, and internal audits and risk-assessments are conducted in a timely manner, so that institutions remain in the good graces of federal funding authorities.

Risk Mitigation

Our team assists academic institutions in drafting, revising, implementing and enforcing policies, protocols and best practices to minimize risk. Taking a proactive approach, we identify student and faculty safety and welfare risks, financial irregularities, and alleged misconduct. Then, we evaluate exposure and develop effective avoidance and response plans. We offer board, administrator and faculty risk mitigation training, conduct independent investigations regarding misconduct allegations, and advise on the interplay between confidentiality, disclosure and family communications.

Title IX

Hinckley Allen’s lawyers have successfully represented academic institutions in responding to Title IX allegations. We have negotiated sensitive, confidential settlements of sexual assault allegations, advised on statutory reporting obligations, and represented clients in interacting with state prosecutors and local law enforcement. Further, we have assisted educational institutions in developing, implementing, and enforcing internal compliance policies regarding student safety and in ensuring legal compliance.

Newsroom

Publication

How Research Misconduct Proceedings Can Invoke Defamation Claims

November 14, 2023

Research misconduct is a high-stakes concern. For research institutions committed to detecting – and thwarting – research fraud, the discovery of putative research misconduct initiates an unstoppable wave of decisions and potentially career-ending reports to funders and collaborators. The stakes are equally high for investigators, who, for the most part, champion their career-long commitments to ethical research, and for whom, even a single external report intimating intentional data manipulation may irreparably tarnish their reputation and jeopardize future funding opportunities.

Publication

The 2023 Cyber Year in Review

December 19, 2023

As we reflect upon 2023, it will unfortunately be remembered as a record-breaking year for ransomware and cybercrime. Data breaches have affected companies of all sizes and in every sector costing the United States billions of dollars in damages. Hackers are increasingly using double and triple extortion tactics that involve encryption, data exfiltration, and distributed denial of service attacks.

Publication

Video: Navigating the Nuances of Internal Investigations

October 3, 2023

Managing an internal investigation is challenging, particularly so when it is high-profile. Hinckley Allen has handled several very high-profile internal investigations and has the experience that clients need. A key first step in any internal investigation is to lock down the materials you need to examine before many people know about the investigation.

Firm News

Hinckley Allen Attorneys Named in Best Lawyers in America® 2024

August 17, 2023

A multitude of Hinckley Allen attorneys are recognized in their respective practice areas in Best Lawyers® 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®. In addition, 11 Hinckley Allen attorneys were named in the “Lawyers of the Year” category, as well as 25 in the publication's “Ones to Watch” category.Best Lawyers® “Lawyer of the Year” recognizes individual lawyers with the highest overall peer-feedback in a specific practice area and region.

Publication

How Financial Institutions Should Prepare for the FTC’s Expanded Safeguards Rule

June 1, 2023

To respond to the constant threat of cyber-attacks and data breaches, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has amended one of its key consumer protection rules: the Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (the “Safeguards Rule”), 16 C.F.R. § 314. This is the first time the Safeguards Rule has been amended since it was enacted in 2003 to fulfill the FTC’s mandate under the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act (“GLBA”) to create rules for the processing and protection of personal information.

Publication

The Critical Role of A Cyber Incident Response Plan in Today’s Cyberthreat Environment

March 8, 2023

Your network has been hacked.  What do you do?  Who do you call?  Who is in charge? These questions need to be answered quickly when your network is under siege by cybercriminals, but does your company know how to handle such a crisis on a weekend or during a holiday break when many cyberattacks are timed to occur so as to strike when your corporate defenses are at their weakest?No organization is immune from cyberattacks.  As the last few years have demonstrated, it is not a matter of if your company will experience a cyberattack, but when.  Indeed, in 2022, 47% of private businesses exp…

Case Study

Preserving a University’s Legacy and Mission

March 19, 2024

An increasing number of colleges and universities are struggling with declining student enrollment, decreased government funding, and increased competition and costs. The team at Hinckley Allen assists higher education clients in finding creative solutions to these challenges.Hinckley Allen represented the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut in connection with the transfer of its educational programs and assets to an affiliate of Goodwin University, alleviating the University’s financial difficulties and preserving the institution’s nearly 100-year legacy and mission.

Publication

Rhode Island Superior Court Holds that Teacher’s Union Has Standing to Pursue Declaratory Judgment Related to APRA Request

December 10, 2022

A recent Rhode Island Superior Court decision held that a local teacher’s union has standing to bring a declaratory judgment action seeking to prohibit certain records from being provided in response to a Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act request.  This decision has important ramifications since it could be used in the future to add another layer of review to APRA requests and/or delay responses to such requests.The case, Nat.

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