Willkie has an extensive background in the area of education, representing numerous colleges, universities, charter schools and other educational providers.
Experience
- Educational Canadian publisher active in all areas of publishing (K-12, higher education, professional learning, business, industry and other markets) in connection with the publisher’s out-of-court restructuring efforts and first lien lenders.
- SUNY Albany, one of the main institutions in New York State’s university system, on employment matters.
- Primedia, a KKR portfolio company that at the time of the transactions owned book, magazine and Web publishers, including the book club division of Macmillan, New York and Seventeen magazines, and About.com on the first lien/second lien middle-market acquisition financing.
- GSEN regarding harms that befall transgender students as a result of discriminatory treatment in schools.
- Edison Schools Inc., a for-profit education management organization that contracts with school districts for performance partnerships, alliances, and charter school establishment in accounting matters investigation.
- Mount Sinai School of Medicine in negotiations and entry into a license agreement to settle multi-national patent infringement actions involving Shire’s Replagal product.
- Various national education groups in an important transgender rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Ardian in the acquisition of a majority stake in AD Education, a European education platform specialized in arts, digital and audiovisual.
- Ardian and its portfolio company AD Education on the acquisition of the European operations of SAE Institute, a leader in audiovisual and creative media higher education.
- ASG, a portfolio company of Alpine Investors, in its sale of ImageQuix to Charlesbank Capital Partners.
- Avista Capital Partners in its acquisition of Spear Education, a provider of clinical training, practice analytics and consulting solutions for the dental market.
- BIM on the sale of Novetude Santé, a specialist of healthcare education to Charterhouse Capital Partners.
- BMO Sponsor Finance in financing for Leeds Equity Partners’ acquisition of Big Blue Marble Academy, a provider of early childhood education programs.
- CIP Capital in its sale of OnCourse Learning to Bertelsmann Education Group.
- Edcetera, a portfolio company of Eden Capital, in its acquisition of PrepFE.
- Edcetera, a portfolio company of Eden Capital, in its acquisition of Pulse Radiology, a pre-licensure and continuing education provider for Radiologic Technologists.
- Eden Capital in its acquisition of Phlebotomy Training Specialists, a leading phlebotomy professional training provider in the U.S.
- Franchise Group in its acquisition of Sylvan Learning.
- IK Investment Partners in connection with its acquisition, through its IK Small Cap I Fund, of Domia Group, the owner of Acadomia (the number one French player in the private tutoring market) from Metric Capital Partners.
- Insight Partners and Achieve3000 in Achieve3000’s sale to McGraw Hill, a portfolio company of Platinum Equity.
- Insight Partners and its portfolio company Interfolio in Interfolio’s acquisition by Elsevier.
- Intelvio, a healthcare education provider and portfolio company of Eden Capital, on its acquisition of Classward.
- Levine Leichtman Capital Partners in its portfolio company Law Business Research’s acquisition of MBL Seminars Limited.
- Ministry Brands in a majority investment from Reverence Capital Partners.
- NPM Capital in its acquisition of Infinitas Learning, a leading provider of products and services designed for education and learning.
- NYU Medical School, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), University of Pennsylvania, the University of Colorado, Oregon Health Sciences University, the Max Planck Institute (Germany) in matters regarding (a) the negotiation of license agreements for the licensing of patented technology of the universities to pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies, (b) the negotiation of individual or multi-project sponsored research agreements between universities and industrial partners, or (c) the receipt by the universities as consideration for their licenses of various forms of equity interests in early stage companies formed to exploit the inventions made at the universities.
- Phlebotomy Training Specialists, a portfolio company of Eden Capital, in its acquisition of Positive Psychology, an online continuing education provider for mental health professionals.
- Platinum Equity in its $4.5 billion acquisition of McGraw Hill, a global leader in educational content and digital platforms, from Apollo Funds.
- Qualium Investissement in relation to its acquisition alongside BPI Investissement of a stake in Early Makers Group (emlyon business school).
- Schaffhausen Institute of Technology in its acquisition of the majority shares of Jacobs University Bremen.
- Shamrock Capital in its investment in Carnegie Dartlet Holdings, LLC, a leading, full-service marketing and enrollment strategy provider for non-profit higher education institutions.
- Talespin, a spatial learning company, in its sale to Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., a leader in learning and talent experience solutions.
- St. John's University in the sale of its 170-acre Oakdale property to Amity University, a nonprofit international educational organization, and the leaseback of a portion of the campus.
- Two Sigma Investments, LP in the first third-party lease for space at The Bridge at Cornell Tech, a new building on Cornell University’s under-construction Roosevelt Island Technology Campus.