General Counsel

Aspire Public Schools NorCal - General Counsel

Job Description

About Aspire NorCal

Founded in 1998, Aspire Public Schools has served scholars and communities across California for nearly three decades. Following Aspire Los Angeles’s transition into an independent organization, Aspire’s Bay Area and Central Valley regions will come together to form Aspire NorCal.

Aspire NorCal will operate 22 schools serving approximately 10,000 scholars across Northern California, with schools located in Oakland, Richmond, East Palo Alto, Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, and Ceres.

This evolution comes at an important moment for Aspire. Changes in California’s funding, policy, enrollment, and operating environment have created an opportunity to rethink how the organization supports its schools and scholars in its next chapter. The formation of Aspire NorCal creates an opportunity to strengthen support for schools across teams previously organized by geography, improve the consistency and effectiveness of school support, and create clear accountability systems for organizational and scholar outcomes. The new model will require the organization to balance greater coherence across Aspire NorCal with responsiveness to the different communities and contexts of its schools.

Aspire NorCal enters this transition with a long-standing mission focused on post-secondary success and a deep commitment to educational equity, along with decades of institutional knowledge across its schools and teams. Preserving those strengths while building Aspire NorCal as a unified region will be central to the work ahead.

About the role

The General Counsel is Aspire NorCal's chief legal officer and the legal lead for the President's work on the Aspire Los Angeles separation and on the support office's policies and risk. A member of the Executive team, this leader reports to the President, with a dotted line to the CEO on legal matters, and advises the President, the CEO, the Board and senior leaders on the legal and regulatory issues that shape Aspire NorCal's schools and operations, including charter law, governance, employment and labor, student rights, special education, contracts, privacy, and risk.

Aspire Public Schools is in a multi-year restructuring. Aspire Los Angeles becomes an independent organization on July 1, 2027, and the General Counsel will serve as legal lead on the separation, working with the CEO on governance and the President on the operating cutover: separation agreements, charter revisions, regulatory approvals, facilities and financing documents, and the agreements that govern the ongoing relationship between the two organizations. At the same time, this leader will run a sound, cost-effective legal function for Aspire NorCal's schools.

They oversee the legal function and outside counsel, set practical policies and processes that help leaders manage risk on their own, and make sure legal considerations come into major decisions early. The General Counsel gives clear, actionable advice, anticipates risk, and helps leaders move forward with confidence.

Competencies

Restructuring and Transition

• Serve as legal lead on the restructuring, including separation agreements, revisions to charter materials, California Attorney General notice and approval, and facilities financing, appraisal, and bond documents.

• Administer transition agreements with Aspire Los Angeles, including licensing and contracted service agreements, and identify and manage conflicts of interest between the two organizations.

• Advise on governance and structure across entities, including tax exemption, charitable purpose, and asset transfers.

Governance, Charters, and Compliance

• Own the legal strategy and filings for charter petitions, renewals, and school openings, closures, consolidations, and transfers; the CEO owns authorizer relationships and the Chief Schools Officer owns the academic case for renewal.

• Attend all Board meetings, review Board items and closed-session materials, and advise the Board on fiduciary duties, the Brown Act, the Political Reform Act, Form 700, and conflicts of interest.

• Own legal and regulatory compliance and filings, including 501(c)(3) requirements, charitable registration, lobbying rules, and required disclosures, and partner with the CFO on financial and grant compliance and the Chief Schools Officer on program compliance.

• Oversee the annual review of the Employee Handbook, Family Handbook, and organizational policies.

Employment, Litigation, and Risk

• Advise managers and the people function on employment and labor matters, investigations, and accommodations (managers own the work and the decision; legal advises), and provide legal review of reductions in force, reorganizations, and compensation and benefits changes.

• With labor counsel and the CEO, set which matters require mandatory notification or an independent investigation, including harassment, discrimination, retaliation, leave and accommodation, and wage-and-hour.

• Direct strategy on employment, liability, and agency claims, defending meritless claims rather than settling them; oversee defense counsel, including trial work; represent Aspire NorCal at mediations and depositions; and partner with the CFO on insurance coverage, tendering, and claims.

• Maintain effective ethics, whistleblower, and investigation processes.

Student Rights and School Support

• Advise school leaders on student safety, Title IX, special education, discipline, custody, FERPA, mandated reporting, and authorizer requests under the Education Code.

• Advise schools on law enforcement and immigration-related requests and other sensitive matters affecting scholars, families, and teammates.

• Design and deliver practical legal and risk training for school and support office leaders.

Privacy, Contracts, and Records

• Partner with the Chief Technology Officer on scholar and teammate data privacy, cybersecurity incidents, data governance, and responsible use of AI, in line with FERPA, COPPA, and California privacy law.

• Set contract escalation rules and build teammate capacity to handle routine agreements, so legal review focuses on non-template, high-value, and disputed contracts.

• Partner with the CFO on facilities transactions, leases, construction, financings, and grants.

• Supervise responses to California Public Records Act requests, subpoenas, legal holds, and records retention.

Legal Function and Leadership

• Manage legal spend against budget, serve as the single point of intake for outside counsel, and secure capable pro bono support where available.

• Maintain a current inventory of open legal matters, the outside counsel register, and the legal calendar.

• Practice Aspire's "excellent management" standard with every direct report: set the conditions for success and hold teammates accountable for results. This means documented check-ins at least twice a month (more often for new and junior staff), clear goals, regular feedback, development conversations, prompt course correction, and no surprises if a role changes or terminates.

• Communicate complex legal issues clearly, give sound risk calls under time pressure, and recommend practical paths forward, including when difficult decisions are required.

• Identify and interrupt inequitable practices in their own work and areas of influence.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing with the State Bar of California.

• 10+ years of legal practice, including significant in-house experience at a charter management organization, school district, public agency, or comparable nonprofit; charter network experience strongly preferred.

• Knowledge of California charter school and education law, including the Education Code, charter renewal and material revision, special education, and student rights.

• Knowledge of California employment law, including reductions in force, investigations, and wage-and-hour compliance.

• Knowledge of nonprofit and public-agency governance, including the Brown Act, the Political Reform Act, and the California Public Records Act.

• Experience advising a Board and senior executives on complex, high-stakes matters.

• Experience managing litigation strategy, outside counsel, and legal budgets.

• Experience with nonprofit restructuring, entity formation, asset transfers, or facilities financing strongly preferred.

• Ability to give clear, practical advice to non-lawyers and to build trust while appropriately challenging leaders when legal or ethical risks require it.

Compensation and benefits

The salary range for this role is $235,000-$275,000 annually, commensurate with experience. This full-time, exempt position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Eligible for Aspire health benefits

• Retirement through CalSTRS or CalPERS, depending on the role's credential requirements, with a 403(b) option

• Paid time off and additional teammate benefits to be determined in accordance with updated employee value proposition to be shared prior to offer.

Location and work arrangement

• Must reside in a county where Aspire NorCal schools are located: San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, or Sacramento.

• Periodic travel required across schools spanning East Palo Alto to the East Bay Area, and Sacramento to Modesto, including attendance at Board of Directors meetings in Stockton.

• In person with work-from-home flexibility to be determined with the CEO.

Equal opportunity

Aspire Public Schools is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Aspire Public Schools provides reasonable accommodations during the application and interview process.