Litigation: administrative law and appellate advocacy
A focused litigation practice. Administrative appeals for nonprofits and schools when the stakes require formal process, with a track record of prevailing before the Connecticut State Department of Education and Connecticut Superior Court.
Most mission-driven organizations prefer to stay out of court, and the bulk of our practice is designed to prevent disputes rather than litigate them. But when an administrative matter requires formal process (a regulatory denial, a funding determination, an authorization fight, or an appeal from an agency decision), we litigate.
We do not hold ourselves out as a general civil or commercial litigation firm. Our litigation practice is deliberately narrow: administrative law, focused today on charter-school administrative appeals in Connecticut, and growing into adjacent administrative-law areas as the practice expands.
Administrative law, not general litigation.
Lauren Koster is a member of two Federal trial court bars and the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. She has clerked for three judges, including a justice
of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Alex Booker brings administrative appellate experience from the
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, where he drafted recommended decisions enforcing federal personnel law and regulations.
Commonlight Difference
Administrative actions before the Connecticut State Department of Education
Petitions for declaratory rulings before the State Board. Appeals from adverse administrative determinations affecting charter authorization, funding, special-education reimbursement, and related matters. Direct representation from petition through hearing.
State court review and enforcement
Administrative appeals in Connecticut Superior and Appellate Courts. Record assembly, briefing, and oral argument. Enforcement of favorable orders and rulings.
Two modes of representation.
Special education reimbursement for Connecticut charter schools
Brass City Charter School (Waterbury) and Booker T. Washington Academy (New Haven) won a May 2024 CSDE declaratory ruling that resident districts must reimburse charter schools’ actual per-student special-education costs (including documented administrative/planning time), and the Superior Court upheld that ruling on appeal in April 2025, establishing the schools’ legal right to payment.
The districts have now taken a second appeal to the Connecticut Appellate Court (AC 48665 and AC 48662), fully briefed as of July 2026.
The schools have won the entitlement at every level but have not yet collected, because payment enforcement is on hold until the Appellate Court rules.
Scope first, fee second.
Every administrative law engagement starts with a scoping call: what’s at stake, what process has already run, and what forum the matter is in or headed to. We quote a flat fee for discrete stages of administrative and appellate matters where scope can be defined, and hourly where it cannot. Thirty-minute initial consultations are complimentary.
Beyond charter schools. Beyond Connecticut.
State regulatory enforcement
Attorney general oversight. Charitable solicitation. Charitable trusts.
Advocacy and compliance
Lobbying registration disputes. Complex tax-exempt status challenges. Denial of reinstatement.
Broader education practice
Appeals from denials of authorization, accreditation, and seat expansion. State aid disputes.
Federal matters
IRS examinations with an administrative hearing posture. Federal grant dispute proceedings.
If your matter sits at the edge of our current practice, the right conversation is a scoping call. We’ll be candid about whether we are the right fit or whether a referral is the better move.
Ready to talk?
Schedule thirty minutes to scope your matter and decide whether we're the right fit for your administrative litigation needs.
Schedule an Advocacy Consultation