Jeffrey J. Nolan

Jeffrey Nolan is an education and employment attorney based in Holland & Knight's Boston office who represents, advises, educates and helps clients nationwide manage conflicts, enhance the safety of individuals and environments, and successfully navigate the maze of legal obligations faced by educational institutions and employers.

Education Law Practice: Mr. Nolan represents and advises colleges, universities and independent schools throughout the United States regarding situations that implicate Title IX, the Clery Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and other laws that apply in the higher education context. He also conducts compliance assessments and helps clients develop Title IX/Clery Act and other policies, practices and training programs to minimize risk and enhance compliance with those laws. In 2018-19 and again in 2022, Mr. Nolan served on the American Council on Education's (ACE) Title IX Working Group that prepared ACE's comments to the U.S. Department of Education's Title IX regulations. He also advises higher educational institutions on the governance, faculty relations and related challenges that they face in the current economic and regulatory environment.

Employment Law Practice: Mr. Nolan assists employers in dealing with the full range of employee relations issues, advises them on how to comply with applicable employment laws, and helps them to create effective employment policies and training programs.

Litigation Practice: Mr. Nolan has more than 25 years of experience representing clients in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Mr. Nolan has successfully argued many cases before the Vermont Supreme Court, including cases that created favorable precedent in the higher education and employment contexts.

Training Practice: In client-sponsored and public venues, Mr. Nolan regularly trains education and human resources professionals throughout the country on best and promising practices in Title IX/Clery Act compliance, witness-centered/trauma-informed fair investigations of Title IX/Clery Act and workplace harassment complaints, how to conduct hearings under the new Title IX regulations, threat assessment and management, ADA issues and other education and employment law issues. More specific information is available about Mr. Nolan's witness-centered/trauma-informed investigation training programs, the concepts of which were cited approvingly many times in the Preamble to the U.S. Department of Education's May 2020 Title IX regulations.

Threat Assessment / Campus and Workplace Safety Practice: Mr. Nolan advises clients on threat assessment practices, using a proven methodology to assess and manage potential risks of targeted violence in the higher education and workplace settings, and he helps clients create violence prevention policies.

Investigation and Hearing Officer Practice: Mr. Nolan also conducts independent investigations of sensitive campus and workplace issues, such as reports of alleged sexual misconduct and/or sexual harassment, intimate partner violence or stalking, faculty misconduct and other workplace misconduct. In addition, he often serves as a hearing officer and decision-maker in college, university and school disciplinary proceedings involving alleged sexual and other misconduct.

Mr. Nolan is a Certified FETI® Practitioner (CFP-B). More information is available about Certified FETI.

Representative Experience

Multiday Curriculum Development Presentations and Title IX Consulting

• In 2020, helped colleges and universities throughout the U.S. revise their sexual harassment policies and procedures in response to the May 2020 Title IX regulations
• Provided training regarding the May 2020 Title IX regulations to thousands of higher education professionals
• Worked with Sigma Threat Management Associates in 2017-2019 to create the curriculum for, and to present, a series of three-day fair, trauma-informed investigation and adjudication programs throughout Virginia for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services
• Worked with a team to develop the curriculum for the U.S. Department of Justice-sponsored trauma-informed sexual assault investigation and adjudication training program that is referenced in the April 2014 First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault; served as pilot program faculty and a faculty member for the final four-day program that was presented in many locations around the country in 2016 through 2018
• Worked with a team to develop and present a two-day "Title IX, VAWA and Threat Assessment Training" program for United Educators at multiple sites in June through November 2015
• Participated as a subject matter authority in the development of the curriculum for a multiday U.S. Department of Justice-funded program, "Campus Threat Assessment Training: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Institutions of Higher Education," and co-presented that training at 10 locations throughout the United States from 2009 to 2011

Select Recent Employment-Related Experience

• Worked with international accounting and consulting firm to create witness-centered, trauma-informed workplace misconduct investigation program, and trained investigation team members and human resources personnel throughout the U.S. on how to implement the program
• At the request of a large national university, conducted and reported on a department-wide investigation of alleged workplace misconduct by numerous faculty members
• Represented a national university in the successful mediated resolution of a threatened claim by a long-term, high-ranking deputy department leader
• Represented a national university in an alleged discrimination and retaliation lawsuit arising out of a reorganization-related termination of the plaintiff's employment
• Representing a college in an alleged discrimination and retaliation lawsuit arising out of the performance-related termination of the plaintiff's employment

Select Recent Education-Related Experience

• Representing a nationally ranked liberal arts college in a putative class action that seeks refunds of tuition and fees because of COVID-19-related changes in the mode of instruction for students
• Representing a large national university in a Title IX-related investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights
• Representing a college that sanctioned the plaintiffs after determining that they engaged in sexual exploitation
• Represented and obtained summary judgment in favor of a university in an alleged gender discrimination and breach of contract lawsuit arising out of the plaintiff student being found responsible for a violation of the university's sexual misconduct policy
• Represented a college in a lawsuit alleging that the college did not respond appropriately to the plaintiff student's complaints of sexual misconduct by another student
• Represented a college in a lawsuit challenging the discontinuance of an academic program
• Represented a college in its successful resolution of a lawsuit claiming that the plaintiff suffered cognitive deficits following a sports-related head injury
• Represented a college in its successful resolution of a lawsuit claiming that the college did not respond appropriately to the plaintiff student's report of sexual misconduct by another student