What's it like to work with F3?
With F3, it’s always about your mission and how you want to achieve it. It’s about students – how they learn and the opportunities you provide for them every day. We’re known as the education law firm with a deep understanding of how schools work, and a commitment to always seeking new ways to help. This applies as much to the often bewildering world of technology in schools as it does to every other aspect of our service to educators.
What can F3 solve for you?
Today’s schools are at the center of the technological revolution, and you should expect a law firm focused on education to be your trusted advisor on how technology is used in schools and by the students you serve. F3 attorneys know well the many benefits the tech world has to offer educators, as well as the minefields and unprecedented challenges you face. Trust our experience and understanding of all things “ed-tech” to make your job easier in this ever-changing universe.
F3 Law can provide valuable legal guidance and expertise to school districts, helping them navigate the complex regulatory landscape and safeguard students, while promoting innovation in education.
– Gretchen Shipley, Partner
Technology is firmly embedded in all areas of education and the lives of our students. From computers in the classroom to students’ social media activities and online interactions with each other, schools are at the center of the digital world in which students live. In many cases, technology moves faster than the law, sometimes making schools the testing grounds for legal and ethical issues regarding how technology is used in schools and by students. F3 has emerged as an acknowledged leader in public education’s digital revolution. Our technology practice can be divided into two overall categories. One consists of the many types of contract formation, e.g., procurement, cybersecurity and data privacy agreements, master service agreements, and more. The other covers how technology is actually integrated into the broad life of schools for educators and students, independent of the products that schools are integrating. This component includes, for example, assisting school districts with policies on social media, codes of conduct, responsible use of technology, emerging technologies, and acceptable cyberspeech.
As the first education law firm to have a separate educational technology department – now one of the largest in the country – we are on the leading edge nationally in exploring the legal dimensions of how schools interact with current and evolving technologies, including the social media universe. For example, our team developed a first-of-its-kind model data privacy agreement that is now in use by 38 states and is considered the national agreement for data privacy. We have worked with Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Google to modify their data privacy agreements to be more user-friendly for educational institutions, offering data protections with school districts in mind. In addition, our attorneys have provided legal counsel to California IT in Education (CITE), the state’s premier organization for education technology professionals. CITE relies on us for informed advice in this fast-moving and often controversial area of education. We have assisted CITE in forming the largest consortium of software services in the country. We also partner with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) and the Future for Privacy Forum (FPF), a leading national non-profit organization that supports principled data practices in emerging technologies.
