Lauren Koster

Lauren Koster, Esq.

Business / Contracts, Business Formation, Education Law, Nonprofits, Tax (Transactional/Litigation)

New York, New York

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Personal Introduction

Lauren is a New York City-based attorney who represents multijurisdictional tax-exempt entities (public charities, private foundations, and social welfare organizations) as their outside general counsel and leads the firm's charter and independent school practice. She advises clients on a wide range of matters, from entity formation and governance through employment, compliance, and grantmaking. She manages direct representation and systemic legal advocacy on behalf of charter schools and charter management organizations, and has prevailed in administrative appeals before the Connecticut State Department of Education and Connecticut Superior Court and is actively pursuing an appeal in the Connecticut Appellate Court. Throughout her legal career, Lauren has merged interests across litigation and transactional practice in service of the public good. She clerked in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire and for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. She served as a Rappaport Fellow for Law & Public Policy at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education in the Office of General Counsel and as a Skadden Fellow, prior to that law firm's capitulation to the Trump Administration. As a Skadden Fellow, she proudly represented children as a court-appointed advocate in juvenile court and child welfare matters.

Practice Composition

Transactional/Litigation

Education

Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School JD (2019)
Yale University
Yale University BA, Political Science (2012)

Practice Summary

Commonlight Legal is a boutique law firm serving nonprofits, charter and independent schools, and mission-driven organizations in New York, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. We are directly accessible: when you hire us, you work with the partner on your matter, not with layers between you and legal decisions. We advise executive directors, board chairs, and senior leadership on the legal challenges that determine whether a mission-driven organization can sustain itself and grow. Our practice spans entity formation and tax-exempt applications; governance and board advisory; employment, contractor, and volunteer compliance; advocacy and lobbying rules; charter and independent school representation; outside general counsel services; and a focused administrative-law litigation practice with a track record before Connecticut's State Department of Education and Superior Court. Commonlight Legal traces its roots to Nonprofits Counsel, a solo nonprofit law practice started in 2021. Since then, Commonlight Legal has grown into a multi-practice firm serving mission-driven organizations, charter schools, independent schools, and nonprofits across four jurisdictions.

Response Time

2 days

Affiliations

Kappa Alpha Theta

Kappa Alpha Theta

Massachusetts Bar Association

Massachusetts Bar Association

Yale Alumni Association

Yale Alumni Association

Personal Interests & Charitable Work

Long-distance running, vinyasa yoga, reading to learn, and crocheting blankets for my friends' babies. Long-time advisor to the Public Interest Law Foundation at Boston College Law and mentor to first-generation college students and public interest law students.

Bar Admissions

Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York

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