Steptoe Swoops Up 16 College Clients

A consortium of 16 private liberal arts colleges has retained Steptoe & Johnson as its outside counsel. Under the agreement, Steptoe will provide Associated Colleges of the South with preventive counseling, as well as “project-based legal services at a sharply reduced rate on issues such as federal regulatory compliance, academic freedom, domestic and international admissions, and nonprofit governance,” says an article in Inside Higher Ed. Roughly half the consortium members have their own legal departments that will continue to handle some work, and the colleges are expected to continue using local firms on such matters as zoning and real estate. The head of the consortium hopes that, in addition to saving money on particular matters, the arrangement will cut down on legal problems in the first place by creating a kind of early warning system, so after one college encounters a legal issue the others will learn to steer away from it.