INADMISSIBLE

IN EDUCATION CASE, A MASH-UP OF FIRMS

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have teamed up to take on the U.S. Department of Education and new regulations that target for-profit higher education companies. Nine lawyers — including Gibson’s Douglas Cox and Randolph Moss of Wilmer — filed suit on Jan. 21 in Washington federal court on behalf of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. Cox is vice chairman of the firm’s crisis management group who practices in constitutional and general commercial litigation. Moss co-chairs Wilmer’s government and regulatory litigation practice. Moss is working with Wilmer partners Jay Urwitz and Brian Boynton in Washington. With Cox, Gibson partner Timothy Hatch in Los Angeles and three associates signed onto the 40-page complaint. It seeks to block three regulations — including rules that govern compensation for people engaged in student recruiting and admission activities — that go into effect in July. The association, which represents more than 1,500 private-sector schools, “has filed this lawsuit to prevent these unlawful regulations from harming students and the schools that serve them,” the group’s attorneys said in court papers. The suit came as lawyers representing for-profit colleges responded to an inquiry on Capitol Hill into job placement rates, program costs and student debt. — Mike Scarcella