Education
Meeting your aspirations
What is involved with education law?
These are changing times across the education field. Whatever issues you are facing, you can call on the expertise of our specialist team of lawyers with confidence. We work daily with universities, colleges, MATS, academies and school governing bodies – drawing on a wealth of in-depth experience gained over the course of 20 years.
We understand the issues your sector is facing today. In particular; the growth in major MAT bodies, college mergers, cuts in funding, the need to raise funds from other sources, attracting students and working with them as they become more demanding, as well as the international dimension. Schools are also inevitably looking at their ongoing need for legal advice as support from local authority services reduces, bringing new challenges for school managers.
Why choose our education legal services?
- Our expert team includes people who have sat on governing bodies and have worked within education institutions – delivering tailored legal advice and contributing to their management
- We therefore possess a keen understanding of issues related to strategy, government legislation and financial pressures
- You can rely on us to provide honest, jargon-free advice and to be transparent about our costs
- We are renowned for being approachable, friendly and capable of offering practical solutions
- Offering you an understanding of the challenges faced from the powers exercisable by OFSTED and Regional Schools Commissioners
We do not have a ‘one size fits all’ approach – the service you receive will be bespoke and personal, a service that is right for your institution. Our lawyers will work with you to provide a full spectrum of services, underpinned by genuine knowledge of how education and the public sector works. You can trust us to provide relevant, practical answers.
Freeths can advise you on academy conversions, employment & staffing issues, commercial contracts & procurement, judicial review, property, estates & construction, development projects, corporate governance, student complaints, intellectual property & spin out companies, knowledge transfer partnerships, research & collaboration agreements, information compliance (Data Protection), regulatory appeals to the First Tier Tribunal, regulatory compliance (including health & safety, food safety, fire safety), partnering, immigration and international ventures.
Call us now to find out how our education law specialists can help you.
Who do our education law team we work with >
- Crescent Purchasing Consortium (FE colleges throughout the country)
- De Montfort University
- Loughborough University
- Leicester University
- Leicester College
- Nottingham Trent University
- Oakham School
- Repton School Trust
- University of Nottingham
- Aston University
- Coventry University
- Department of Education and British Universities Finance Directors Group
Education Lawyers
Emma Brooksbank
Partner
0345 166 6300
Daniel Cuthbert
Partner
0345 026 7904
Jackie Heeds
Partner
0345 634 2606
Kim Jones
Partner
0345 166 6274
Stephen Pearson
Partner
0345 274 6900
Gillian Roberts
Partner
0345 050 3611
Christopher Sing
Partner
0345 017 1345
Duncan Tringham
Partner
0117 472 5385
Julie Grimble
Director
0345 077 9625
Frank Suttie
Director
0345 128 6996
Daniel McNally
Managing Associate
0345 030 5728
Sarah Norton
Managing Associate
0345 050 3600
Joshua Day
Associate
0345 404 4116
Commercial Education Brief – Autumn Edition 2023
Articles 21st Nov 2023Commercial Education Brief – Summer 2023
Articles 3rd Jul 2023Freeths advises Twenty20 Capital on the acquisition of seven best-known UK staffing and workforce solutions brands, bringing them together under the new brand RSS Global
News 28th Mar 2023- Advised Loughborough University on the “LUil” Project – a strategic project to procure a range of services to enable the smooth running of a new university campus – the Loughborough University Campus in Stratford, East London, a specialised site which will devote itself exclusively to the provision of taught Masters / PHD degrees for an international cohort of students. We both acted on the initial site acquisition (on the site of the Olympic Media Centre) but also utilising the new European “Competitive Procedure with Negotiation” (which was only developed by the EU in February 2015), supervised the procurement process, drafting of contracts and agreement of key performance indicators for facilities management, building management, student support and ICT services. We are at the time of writing this submission about to sign-up with the provider in order to enable a smooth service commencement in early 2016. This is a flagship project for the University in respect of which it is critical to get it “right first time”.
- Landau Forte Charitable Trust has 600 staff over 6 different sites. We were able to offer a cloud-based solution to provide vertical support across its entire organisation. This consisted of an extensive bank of short podcasts that all managers could access to support them in their dealings with common staff issues and a smaller number of longer videos for more formal processes. The managers’ resources had the flexibility to be used as an initial training programme or to practically deal with current issues as and when they arose. In addition, we offered an online toolkit with written guidance and the facility to generate template letters.
- Unnamed School – Challenging the DFE on the proposed imposition of an Interim Executive Board.
- Acting for a local authority on a complex academy conversion involving several sites. The matter is particularly complex as the main site was constructed under a PFI project, is shared by more than one school, and not all of the schools are converting. It includes leisure facilities, community library and children’s centre.
- Advising a national education provider on a complicated and sensitive disciplinary process, following a member of staff coming under suspicion for the murder of a child.
- Defending a prominent independent school in a tribunal claim for disability and sex discrimination, involving matters that were publicly sensitive to a successful conclusion while protecting confidentiality.
- Advising many clients, including a leading university, on protracted employment disputes that involve subject access requests under the Data Protection Act.
- Leading the soft merger of the staff of two schools into an integrated single organisational structure on time and on budget. This was done without any complaints being made in the employment tribunal by staff or the relevant trade unions.
Client service
‘Doing the right thing’ is at the heart of Freeths. Find out more about our excellent client service and the strong set of values that guide the way we work.
Talk to us
Freeths are a leading national law firm with 13 offices across the UK. If you have a query about our services or just want to find out more, why not give us a call?
Contact: 03301 001 014