While school boards nearly always have the power to make final decisions, most schools and colleges employ a system of shared governance that creates opportunities for administrators, faculty, and staff to provide their feedback. While there are numerous benefits to a shared governance system, there are also abundant challenges that can lead to legal risk.

We help schools, colleges and universities navigate through complex issues of conflicts of interest, director independence, and other governance matters. We have assisted clients to update governance documents (articles, bylaws, policies and procedures) to reflect modern governance concepts. We also advise in the areas of state and federal regulation compliance, financial exigency, and the public disclosure requirements that surround institutional governance in an academic setting. Many of our attorneys can provide first-person insight into governance matters given their own experiences on the boards for local schools and colleges such as the University of Maine System, College of Wooster, University of Richmond, Maine College of Art, the Keene State College Endowment, and North Yarmouth Academy.