Amy Foerster. Photo: Bucknell University/Gordon Wenzel

The top lawyer at Bucknell University is returning to the private practice of law, with plans to join Pepper Hamilton as a partner and practice leader.

Amy Foerster will be joining Pepper Hamilton's Harrisburg office as a partner effective May 1, the firm announced Thursday. She will co-chair the firm's higher education practice group with litigation partner Michael Baughman.

Foerster has been general counsel and chief of staff at Bucknell since 2013. Before that, she was a partner at Saul Ewing, where she also co-chaired the higher education practice.

“I'm excited about the prospect of returning to private practice and taking all the great things I've learned and seen as general counsel and chief of staff at Bucknell … and converting that to serving colleges and universities all across the country,” Foerster said.

During her time in private practice, Foerster worked with clients on what she characterized as “traditional” higher education issues, including student affairs, Title IX and athletics matters. She said she decided to make the move to Pepper Hamilton because of the firm's breadth of practice areas.

“Universities are just little cities. They're microcosms with legal issues from tax to IP and everything in between,” she said.

As an in-house lawyer, Foerster said, she maintained relationships with colleges and universities throughout the country, which she looks forward to continuing at Pepper Hamilton. She expects to maintain ties with her current colleagues at Bucknell, she said.

Baughman, who now leads the higher education practice and will continue as co-chair, said Foerster's experience “is going to give our clients the best of both worlds.”

The 425-lawyer firm has between 15 and 20 lawyers working on higher education matters, Baughman said, including those who focus solely on colleges and universities, and lawyers that provide services in specific practice areas to higher education clients as needed.

The firm saw the departure of a high-profile group of higher education lawyers focused on sexual misconduct investigations and response lawyers in 2017. But Baughman said Pepper Hamilton has continued to do some investigations in the higher education space, and maintained “a strong Title IX practice.”

Title IX matters have becoming an area of increasing change over the past several years, and colleges and universities have had to adjust their policies in the midst of those developments. Foerster said that area of law is a “sweet spot” for her practice.

“You read a lot about the efforts colleges and universities are making to comply with Title IX, and whether they're doing the right thing on that front. Having seen it on both sides now, colleges and universities and general counsels and their leadership teams work really hard to do the right thing in this area,” Foerster said. ”What I'm excited about … is to help them tell that story.”

Bucknell President John Bravman sent a letter to faculty and staff Wednesday about Foerster's planned departure, in which he said the university will be working on a transition plan to ensure there is no lapse in legal representation.

“The university is much stronger today because of Amy's thoughtful, judicious and tireless contributions. She has guided us through complex legal matters, helped enact policies and procedures that have significantly improved our campus environment, and she has unquestionably elevated the level of strategic thinking by my senior leadership colleagues and me,” Bravman said in the letter, which the university provided to The Legal.

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