It is an interesting but challenging time for many of our educational clients and our multi-disciplinary team of experts have a strong track record of acting for:

• many well-known and successful schools within the independent and state sectors,
• further and higher education institutions; and
• a number of professional bodies within the education sector engaged in the production of specialist publications and the training and assessment of candidates for different levels of academic and professional competence.

We are witnessing how government policy and straitened times have forced unprecedented change on the sector and we have assisted many of our educational clients to navigate their way through the changes and have helped them to identify and pursue new opportunities.

Our school clients are requesting our assistance on a diverse range of innovative strategies, such as the ability to pursue international aims, the development of lucrative alternative income streams, and mergers and collaborations with others in order to achieve efficiencies and economies of scale without compromising the delivery of a first class education to their pupils. We provide support on a wide variety of issues including charity law and governance, employment law, property and construction matters, dispute resolution and data protection. We are also well placed to provide broader strategic advice and advise on commercial arrangements with third parties.

Our clients in the broader educational sector require legal assistance on a wide cross section of issues, including complex property transactions, planning and construction advice, HR, regulatory compliance, fund raising, charity law, investing in and protecting IP in the context of licences, spin offs and research projects. A number of these clients own well-known brands whose qualification certificates are highly valued internationally. These include vocational courses and assessments as well as more academic subjects, and increasingly sophisticated online products. We have longstanding expertise in, and experience of assisting these clients to compete in a very commercial world.