Higher education Solicitors

Education
We help organisations throughout the education sector to maximise their opportunities, overcome challenges, and minimise potentially damaging risks.


Our clients include universities, further education colleges, independent schools and other linked bodies including representative groups – and we share their priorities of excellence, innovation and collaboration. In a competitive and financially challenging environment, we help them to protect their interests, fully exploit opportunities, and resolve disputes.

A few typical examples:

Construction

Whether the new building’s purpose is accommodation, teaching or anything else, these are large projects which can have real benefits – not only by improving the student experience. Various legal structures are available, each with different advantages and risks, so it’s essential to make informed decisions right at the start of the project.

Real Estate

Land and buildings, including purpose-built student accommodation, are key to the successful operation of education bodies. We support those clients with all aspects of their real estate holdings, including purchase, management, leasing and sale.

Innovation

Any organisation that carries out research needs to ensure that this investment is appropriately rewarded when it produces commercially significant results. We help our clients to ensure that their intellectual property is properly protected.

Immigration

Many educational bodies have an international outlook. We provide advice and support with all the immigration and visa issues that come with having a worldwide footprint.

Governance

Falling foul of the regulatory rules – which can be extensive and complex, especially for charities – can have serious consequences both financially and reputationally. We help to prevent that from happening, and to resolve disputes when they arise. We review existing governance structures and advise on revisions that enable efficiencies to be made.

Employment

Academic and non-academic staff are critical to delivering an educational institution’s mission, and the sector’s employment models and practices bring unique challenges and opportunities. We use our long-standing experience of the nuances of managing people within an academic environment to help our clients to be practical, effective and legally compliant managers.

Our expertise also includes:

  • Charity law
  • Pensions
  • Public Sector Equality Duties
  • The Student Contract and experience
  • Human rights
  • Freedom of Information
  • Data Protection
  • Statutory powers, vires and remit
  • Constitutional, governance and best practice
  • Judicial review and legal challenges
  • Commercial and other disputes
  • Land and property transactions, including planning and student accommodation
  • Procurement
  • Intellectual Property
  • Commercial contracts, spin-outs, acquisitions and disposals
  • Tax
  • Health and Safety
  • Funding, including legacies, donor agreements and structures

Meet our key contacts

Neil Maclean

Partner and Head of Employment

Education

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Lisa Ambrus

Senior Associate

Heather Bird

Director

Nathaniel Buckingham

Partner

Iain Drummond

Partner and Head of Commercial Disputes and Regulation

Jack Freeland

Associate

Olivia Greener

Senior Solicitor

Kirsty Headden

Partner

Sarah Holmes

Associate

Neil Maclean

Partner and Head of Employment

Deborah Miller

Consultant

Matt Phillip

Partner

John Vassiliou

Director and Head of Immigration

Keir Willox

Partner

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Contact us