Jane M. Sovern

Jane joined Bond as a member in 2020 after having served at The City University of New York (CUNY) as Deputy General Counsel, and in other positions for more than 20 years, including as Interim General Counsel and Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs in 2017.

She provides legal advice and counsel to colleges and universities, independent schools, and public school districts in all aspects of education and non-profit law, including student, faculty and employee issues, New York State education and accreditation issues, governance, litigation, campus safety including Title IX, academic issues, and internal and external investigations.

Jane advises on Title IX policies and issues; free expression policies and issues; student conduct and discipline; internal and external investigations; labor and employment issues in unionized and non-unionized environments including faculty tenure and promotion and employee misconduct; Freedom of Information laws (FOIL) and other public records issues, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), regulatory and non-profit compliance and academic matters including accreditation and academic integrity.

At CUNY Jane’s responsibilities included advising the Chancellor and other senior leadership, the Board of Trustees, and the administrations of the constituent campuses. Her work encompassed a wide range of legal and policy issues facing a 24-campus public university system that included K-12 education, community colleges, graduate schools, and workforce development programs, with over 270,000 full-time students and over 45,000 employees. She supervised a legal office with 20 attorneys. In 2007-2008 while at CUNY, she served as staff to the New York State Commission on Higher Education under Governors Spitzer and Paterson.

Prior to joining CUNY, Jane was associated with the law firms of Paul, Weiss, and Meister, Leventhal & Slade.