WilmerHale is pleased to announce that Lisa Brown, most recently the US Department of Education’s general counsel and, before that, the longstanding general counsel of Georgetown University, has joined the firm as a partner and the next head of its preeminent Higher Education Practice Group.
Brown is a lawyer with extraordinarily deep and broad experience at senior levels in the federal government, university administration, non-profits and private practice. She will represent education clients across the wide swath of challenges facing institutions of higher learning.
Brown was general counsel and a vice president of Georgetown University from 2013 until joining the Education Department in 2021. At Georgetown, Brown advised the university’s president, governing board, and senior academic and administrative officers on issues facing the university, including the legal implications of university policies and decisions. Before Georgetown University, Brown held several federal government roles, including as staff secretary to President Obama and as a senior executive within the Office of Management and Budget.
As general counsel of the Education Department, Brown provided legal advice to the Secretary of Education and other department officials on issues related to department initiatives, policies, regulations, litigation and business operations, including congressional and media inquiries.
At WilmerHale, Brown will advise institutions of higher education on the myriad legal concerns that face colleges and universities, including those involving admissions, antidiscrimination, free speech, financial aid, research, government contracting, sexual misconduct and student-athletics.
Brown, based in the firm’s Washington DC office, joins the firm’s Strategic Response Group, which assists clients facing government enforcement proceedings, congressional investigations and other high-stakes and high-profile challenges. Additionally, her practice will help charitable foundations and academic medical centers navigate the span of complex issues confronting them.
“For many years our firm has represented college and university clients, including some of the most prestigious, in the most consequential and high-profile matters of the day,” said Anjan Sahni, WilmerHale’s managing partner. “In adding Lisa, a lawyer with a truly remarkable career in and out of government, we build on the many strengths that allow us to give our clients legal representation that is unmatched in experience, creativity and capabilities.”
Brown said: “I’m thrilled to join WilmerHale, whose higher education practice is the gold standard. Higher education has entered a period of unprecedented uncertainty and risk, and I’m excited to work with my new colleagues to help colleges and universities navigate this complex time. WilmerHale’s strength in so many practice areas – litigation, regulatory matters, public policy, enforcement, intellectual property, environmental, transactions – makes it an ideal platform to achieve the best results possible for our clients.”
Prior to her government service, Brown was a partner in private practice at a Washington DC law firm where she litigated cases in trial and appellate courts.
Brown received her BA, magna cum laude, from Princeton University and her JD with honors from the University of Chicago Law School.
