Insights

Washington – August 3, 2022: On August 1, a Crowell & Moring team filed an amicus brief in the two affirmative action cases pending before the Supreme Court on behalf of leaders at Howard University and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as well as the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the national membership association of the nation’s 106 HBCUs. The HBCU leaders’ brief pointed to Harvard, the University of North Carolina, and other historically White universities’ long history of excluding Black students and its present-day effects, which include continued underrepresentation.

Washington – July 20, 2021: Crowell & Moring’s International Dispute Resolution Group has been included in the 14th edition of Global Arbitration Review's GAR 100, a guide to the top 100 law firms with international arbitration capabilities. GAR is one of the leading journals of public and private arbitration.

San Francisco – December 21, 2020: In a novel constitutional case, Crowell & Moring secured a decisive victory for the University of California (UC) by defeating a motion for preliminary injunction which sought to halt the implementation of an Executive Order requiring that all UC students, employees, and faculty working, studying, or living on campus to get a flu shot by November 1. UC was one of dozens of U.S. colleges and universities that implemented a flu vaccine requirement this year, due to the confluence of the 2020-21 flu season and the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fourth Circuit and an Arizona district court both have grappled with the issue of whether a school’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt-status is a form of “federal financial assistance” under various federal nondiscrimination provisions.  For a nonpublic school to be subject to statutes such as Title VI or Title XI, the school must be a recipient of federal financial assistance.

The Biden Administration has taken several steps to respond to the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, No. 20-1199, and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina et al., No. 21-707 (collectively “SFFA”) of which institutions of higher education should be aware.

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued an opinion in Groff v. Dejoy, that affects almost all employers, including institutions of higher education.

At universities across America, more than 30 Crowell & Moring alumni make their careers as in-house counsel or faculty. Among them are Beth Nolan, senior vice president and general counsel at George Washington University, Karen Petrulakis, chief deputy general counsel at University of California, and David Florin, deputy general counsel for health affairs at Yale University. And just this December, alumna Ramona Romero assumed the role of Princeton University's general counsel. All serve in key leadership positions and help their universities tackle issues ranging from cutting-edge research and intellectual property licensing to Title IX concerns and academic freedom." In the March edition of Crowell Connect, they and other C&M alumni discuss their memories of the firm and what it's like to work in higher education. 

Please join us for the next edition of Third Thursday – Crowell & Moring’s Labor and Employment Update, a webinar series dedicated to helping our clients stay on top of developing law and emerging compliance issues.

This is the National Association of College University Attorneys event.  The program will feature a wide array of sessions, networking opportunities, special events, and activities.

This is a conference presented by the International Bar Association ("IBA") Litigation Committee and supported by the IBA Corporate Counsel Forum and the IBA North American Regional Forum.

Make plans to join members of Crowell & Moring’s Education Group for a two-part overview of where the regulations and polices may be headed in the new Biden Administration. We will also highlight hot topics and new developments for 2021. Topics to be discussed include:

Make plans to join members of Crowell & Moring’s Education Group for a two-part overview of where the regulations and polices may be headed in the new Biden Administration. We will also highlight hot topics and new developments for 2021. Topics to be discussed include:

The Department of Education has increased its scrutiny of universities receiving foreign gifts and contracts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. Universities are required to report contracts with and gifts from a foreign source that are valued at $250,000 or more in a calendar year. DoE has published an information collection request detailing a new reporting system and is expected to pursue related rulemaking. Reporting is next due on July 31, 2020.