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2026 Summer Associate - Education

Cooley, LLP | Reston, VA, United States

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Posted Date 4/17/2025
Description

Description:


Cooley LLP is recruiting 2L summer associates for our summer program to join our Education and Edtech practices in our Washington, DC, Reston, VA, or San Diego, CA office.

For 40+ years, Cooley lawyers have provided comprehensive legal services and counsel to the education industry. With one of the largest practices devoted exclusively to the sector and home to the first practice dedicated to supporting edtech companies, Cooley lawyers and professionals combine an exceptional depth of knowledge with unmatched experience in the many substantive areas that characterize contemporary teaching and learning, including traditional educational institutions and edtech companies.

Our clients include companies and organizations that serve students of all ages, from early childhood through workforce development, along with innovators, investors, lenders and visionaries that support and transform the education community. Our multidisciplinary team provides sophisticated legal representation in coordination with other Cooley practices that enables education sector clients to seize new opportunities and successfully meet the challenges of a constantly changing business, regulatory and technological landscape.

Cooley's education and edtech teams are part of our CooleyREG (https://www.cooley.com/services/practice/cooleyreg) offering to provide business advice for highly regulated industries. Our professionals combine an understanding of the potential impacts of disruptive advancements – and the regulatory issues that influence operations – to help our clients thrive in an increasingly complex and shifting legal landscape.

Our group works collaborates with many practices and across domestic and international offices, including working closely with our nationally ranked tech transactions and cyber/data/privacy practices to navigate commercial and strategic initiatives, as well as with our government analytics practice headed by a former ED deputy assistant secretary, which provides clients with federal public policy insights and regulatory strategies to help them make informed business decisions.

Areas of Practice:
  • Student funding
    • Advise on the complexities of federal funding for student financial aid under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (as amended) and private funding obligations
  • Accreditation and state licensure
    • Work with state agencies that authorize postsecondary institutions, accrediting agencies that oversee program quality, and state licensure boards that qualify graduates to practice in their chosen fields
    • Counsel on licensure and authorization of educational services delivered across state and national borders via online learning and innovative technologies
  • Edtech commercial counseling
    • Assist edtech companies at all stages of the corporate life cycle to understand and navigate the education ecosystem, secure capital, and drive positive outcomes
    • Draft and advise on industry-specific services and licensing arrangements, terms, and customer agreements
    • Assist clients with navigating state and federal children's and student data privacy laws, including through targeted data protection agreements
  • Legislation and public policy
    • Provide companies with policy insight to make informed business decisions
    • Monitor federal public policies and procedures and analyze education-related legislation
    • Identify meaningful patterns in legislative and regulatory processes that are likely to impact our clients' business interests
  • Litigation and administrative appeals
    • Represent postsecondary entities in a wide range of controversies in federal and state courts and before federal agencies – including resolving disputes and representing institutions in proceedings before administrative tribunals
    • Defend against qui tam actions, particularly with regard to their use of federal student aid funds
    • Support litigation teams in student data privacy actions and investigations
  • Transactions, mergers and acquisitions
    • Advise clients on all aspects of strategic transactions – including public and private offerings, financings, debt and equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions
    • Guide postsecondary clients through complex negotiations, multilevel financings and all other phases of major transactions
    • Work with clients to design products and structures that are most likely to minimize regulatory limitations
  • Distance and alternative learning
    • Assist in the design, development and implementation of innovative approaches to learning
    • Advise on the applicability of multijurisdictional regulation
    • Provide sophisticated analysis of impacts of conduct on state licensure requirements https://www.cooley.com/services/practice/state-authorization
  • Employment support
    • Advise clients on the design and operation of qualified, nonqualified, and incentive alternative compensation and stock-based program plans for employees, as well as retirement and healthcare programs and executive employment contracts
    • Advise large corporate clients on employee educational benefit programming

The expected salary for this position is based on an annualized rate of pay of $225,000.
Salary225,000.00 Annual
Title
Summer / Fellow / Clerk
Years of Experience
1-3 | 3-5 | 5-7 | 7+

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