Update and Discussion on Legal and Practical Issues
The Year Ahead: Litigation Hot Spots at a Glance
VIDEO: Using the COVID-19 Shutdown to Enhance the University Brand
(Video) Reimbursement of College Tuition and Fees After COVID-19
Dean: Law Schools Use Merit Scholarships To Boost Rankings
Bar President: 3Ls Should Get Paid for Internships
Northwestern Law Dean: Let Students "Vote With Their Feet"
Law School Applications Crater
Law Prof: Schools May Close if 2-Year Program Adopted
Dean: There's No Oversupply of Lawyers
Four years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, tuition refund class actions against universities have not slowed down. This Holland & Knight alert considers two recent court cases that will impact litigation strategy...more
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, hundreds of lawsuits (many styled as class actions) have been filed by college and university students seeking tuition and fee refunds due to campus closures during the Spring 2020 semester....more
We recently highlighted two Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits, against Brandeis University and Boston College, and the impact of a provision in the Commonwealth’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget that grants...more
In Part 2 of our series on our Massachusetts and Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits, we reviewed the legal backdrop of this wave of class action litigation and explored some common pitfalls in...more
Massachusetts colleges and universities received some good news recently as Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill that limits their liability for certain tuition and fee refund claims arising from the COVID-19 pandemic....more
Part 2: The Legal Backdrop - In Part 1 of this series, we provided a brief overview and introduction of the Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action cases, noting generally that most similar suits haven’t made it...more
Part 1: Introduction and Overview - Earlier this month, Boston University prevailed in one of the few surviving Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits. The U.S. District Court in Boston granted BU’s...more
College life was just one of the many things affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools around the country were forced to close academic buildings, residence halls, and other campus facilities and to pivot to online...more
Syracuse University Hit with Another Class Action Lawsuit Over Pandemic Refund Policy - "She is looking to represent an estimated tens of thousands of students who paid for tuition in the spring semester of 2020." Why...more
In previous posts, we reported on several of the many lawsuits across the country in which students have sued their colleges and universities for tuition reimbursement as a result of not receiving certain services during (in...more
The challenges confronted by higher educational institutions in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have been unprecedented. Faced by legal mandates that limited gatherings and ultimately required campus closings during the...more
Since March 2020, hundreds of class-action lawsuits have been filed by students and parents of students seeking reimbursement of tuition and fees from higher education institutions, stemming from the transition from in-person...more
Welcome back to the Class Action & MDL Roundup! Our winter edition covers notable class actions from the fourth quarter of 2020. In this edition, we find a common theme among COVID-19 class actions, the Tampa 2 defends...more
Two more university tuition refund cases were recently decided at the pleadings stage, with mixed results for the university defendants. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in the matter of...more
COVID-19 class actions continue to increase and are expected to spread to additional areas of law. Higher education has been one of the prime subjects of class actions thus far. To date, over 250 class action lawsuits have...more
There is a current wave of class action lawsuits against institutions of higher education. Over 150 class action suits have been filed. Students are seeking reimbursement of their tuition, room and board, and fees...more
As we enter the New Year, the end is not yet in sight for litigation related to COVID-19. Five recent decisions, summarized below, highlight the still developing legal implications of the pandemic on private party rights as...more
2020 has been a tumultuous year, but it has taught us to better prepare for the future and how to better enable schools to maintain their operations in the face of these unprecedented challenges. As schools faced shutdown...more
This 29th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, covers some of the hottest topics in these developing areas of law: governments' authority to implement mass gathering restrictions, face...more
This 27th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, sees us start with a discussion of a trend toward class actions, with later discussions on two key areas -- insurance coverage disputes and...more
COVID-19 and Unprecedented: Litigation Insights, Issue 22 In our 22nd edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, we see cases against employers continue to rise, and offer insight for...more
This 17th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, discusses everything from insurance coverage disputes to statewide shutdown orders. Despite an uphill climb towards liability, businesses...more
In an effort to balance safety with education amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities have transitioned from in-person classes to online formats. ...more
An Auburn University student claims he did not get what he bargained for in being relegated to distance learning instead of having an in-person educational experience. On June 30, 2020, Steven Bailey filed a federal court...more
In this episode, Akin Gump litigation partner Hyongsoon Kim and counsel Molly Whitman discuss class actions against colleges and universities that have moved to remote teaching due to the pandemic. Among the topics...more