The attorneys in our Private Education Group serve as trusted advisors to boards of California non-profit public benefit and religious corporations. This includes advising on issues pertaining to a board’s structure, such as the selection of directors/trustees and officers, the formation and functions of committees, and how boards may work with individuals who serve in non-voting capacities, such as faculty representatives, while complying with the Corporations Code. Our attorneys specialize in providing counsel on the unique challenges that boards of educational corporations face, including the role of the board versus a school’s administration, how to manage the dual roles that many directors/trustees hold, such as that of a parent of a student enrolled in the school who also serves as a trustee, and how to communicate with the broader community served by a school.
Our attorneys counsel and provide best practices to boards regarding the fiduciary duties of directors/trustees, avoiding liability including personal liability, and avoiding self-dealing transactions and other conflicts of interest. We also provide trainings on a wide array of governance issues to various national and state educational organizations, as well as to our private education consortia, and provide customized training for individual boards to assist them with the particular challenges they are facing, such as in the case of board member misconduct or best practices for new trustees.
A core part of our governance work is assisting boards with their governing documents. Attorneys in our Private Education Group routinely work with boards to prepare or update their governing documents, including articles of incorporation, bylaws and board member handbooks, as well as various board policies.
