Profile

Jane serves a number of prestigious clients in higher education. Before joining Bond, she served as Deputy General Counsel, Interim General Counsel and Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs at The City University of New York (CUNY).

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.

 

  • An Interview with Jane Sovern, Higher Education, Legally Bond Podcast, October 16, 2023
  • Panelist, What Keeps a College President Up at Night, Legal Issues in Higher Education, Manhattanville College School of Education 3rd Annual Legal Issues Symposium, February 21, 2020
  • Panelist, Sexual Assault on Campus, American Bar Association National Conference, August 12, 2017 (televised on C-SPAN)
  • Playing with FIRE: Micro-aggressions and Trigger Warnings, Annual Conference of NACUA, June 2017
  • Higher Education Law, Practising Law Institute, May 2015
     

  • Legal Services of the Hudson Valley
    • President, 2023-Present
    • Board Member, 2019-2023
  • CUNY School of Law Foundation, Board Member, 2020-2023
  • Education and the Law Committee, New York City Bar Association, Member, 2016-2019
  • New York State Governor’s Commission on Higher Education, Staff Member, 2007-2008