Industries

Higher Education

Leading colleges and universities turn to Gibson Dunn for sophisticated counsel on their most important matters.

Over time, we have represented approximately half of the top 10, three-quarters of the top 20, and half of the top 50 U.S. News-ranked schools

Ranked Nationwide for Higher Education in Chambers USA and Legal 500 U.S.

85+ attorneys with deep higher education experience

Trusted by universities and colleges with their most challenging and high-stakes matters

Overview
Experience
People
Accolades
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Overview

Gibson Dunn is a trusted advisor to educational institutions, helping them confront and resolve legal and regulatory challenges — often under close public and political scrutiny — so they can keep advancing their academic mission.

Over time, we have represented approximately half of the top 10 U.S. News & World Report-ranked colleges and universities, three-quarters of the top 20, and half of the top 50.

Our multidisciplinary team spans litigation, regulatory, and transactional practices.

Our work focuses on government investigations; litigation with government agencies, advocacy groups, and private plaintiffs; internal audits and investigations; rulemaking comments and challenges; and crisis management.

We regularly represent institutions before Congress, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, state Attorneys General, and other government agencies. Our team includes lawyers who have served in senior government positions and bring firsthand insight into the legal and regulatory considerations shaping the education sector.

We also advise on business and transactional matters that support our clients’ day-to-day operations and long-term goals, including real estate, financing, tax and nonprofit matters, intellectual property, technology commercialization, and other strategic transactions.

Across every matter, our goal is the same: to help these institutions safeguard what they have built and pursue what they aspire to achieve.

“Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher fields a really smart group of lawyers with deep analytical horsepower and subject-matter expertise.”
Chambers USA 2026, Higher Education

Experience

Representations include:

Representing six universities in over a dozen high-profile DOJ and EEOC investigations, including into alleged antisemitism on campus, DEI programs, alleged consideration of race in admissions, and gender-affirming care.
Representing four universities in highly publicized Congressional investigations and testimony regarding antisemitism, the cost of higher education, and Chinese influence on college campuses.
Representing multiple university board members in connection with high-profile DOJ and EEOC investigations and private litigation related to alleged antisemitism and discrimination on campus.
Advising multiple institutions on DEI best practices following the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard/UNC Supreme Court decision and conducting internal audits as part of the Firm’s DEI Task Force.
Representing in independent actions multiple universities in some of the nation’s largest class and mass litigation of alleged sexual abuse by university physicians involving thousands of class members and hundreds of individual opt-out claims, as well as in related investigations, internal compliance, and interface with university boards.
Representing a university in multiple antitrust class actions involving dozens of private universities and securing dismissal or favorable results in resolved matters.
Representing a university in an equal pay case brought by the EEOC relating to pay in the university’s athletics department.
Successfully defending a university in litigation brought by a student-athlete and captain of the men’s rowing team seeking to compel the university to reinstate its varsity men’s rowing team.
Successfully obtaining dismissal of a putative class action against a university brought by students challenging the use of distance learning in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Representing 20 universities in challenging an ICE policy requiring F-1 foreign student visa-holders to attend courses in person during the COVID-19 pandemic or face removal to their home countries.
Successfully obtaining dismissal of all claims against multiple universities by a putative class of rejected college applicants seeking refunds of application fees related to the college admissions scandal.
Successfully advised a university on the sale, and subsequent follow-on sale, of royalty interests in a prostate cancer treatment, including the residual interests held by the faculty inventors.
Assisting multiple universities in navigating the complex tax regulatory landscape applicable to higher education institutions, including advising university endowments on structuring their investments in a tax-efficient manner and advising on issues involving unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) and the excise taxes applicable to non-profit organizations.
Ongoing representation of a university in connection with construction, real estate, corporate structuring, and bond-financing matters for a mixed-use academic village complex in San Francisco that includes student housing, classrooms and retail.