Meet Your Education Law Section Chair!

By Kim Davis and Maya Weinstein

Collins Saint, a Partner at Brooks Pierce McLendon Humphrey & Leonard LLP, is the current Chair of the NCBA Education Law Section. As a former educator and mental health practitioner, Collins helps schools, nonprofits, and individuals navigate complex legal challenges with clarity, strategy, and practicality.  Known for his work in education law, civil rights, and identity justice, Collins combines his deep legal knowledge with a trauma-informed, equity-centered approach to every matter he handles.  When not practicing law, you can find Collins exploring North Carolina’s waterways, hiking with his dog, or trying out new recipes from his weekend farmer’s market hauls.

Maya Weinstein, current Communications Co-Chair for the Education Law Section, asked Collins some questions so we could get to know and appreciate the amazing leader the Section currently has at the helm:

MW:  How did you end up practicing education law?

CS:  When I went to college, I knew I wanted to invest in improving the lives of children, but I did not know how. A winding road led me through wanting to be a fine arts teacher, then to learning theories and child development, then to school counseling with a side quest in curriculum development. Eventually, in the middle of my master’s program in school counseling, I discovered I wanted to invest my time in systemic work, not direct services, and took a year to decide how I wanted to go about that. In that time, I stumbled across an eight-page guide from a law school’s career services office that detailed a dozen careers in education law. I had never heard of education law, but the more I read, the more I saw my future in the field. That’s when I decided to go to law school: for the sole purpose of becoming an education lawyer. While in law school, I networked like hell, met as many changemakers in the education field as I could, shadowed attorneys and policy advisors across the state, and ultimately landed a summer associate position at Brooks Pierce. That position solidified my trajectory out of law school. For the past eight years at Brooks Pierce, I have provided advice and counsel to numerous school systems as well as supported school systems across the state in litigation and investigations involving some of the most emotional legal issues.

MW: How would you describe “education law” to someone who stares at you blankly when you tell them that’s your area of practice?

CS:  I usually get the question, “Wait, school districts have lawyers?” And admittedly, I had the same blind spot when I was exploring career options before I decided to go to law school. I had no idea! So now, when I meet folks, I answer that question by explaining that school systems need lawyers like any other business. School systems are often the largest employers and real property holders in any county and deal with legal issues that any other entity would face. They need employment lawyers, construction and real estate lawyers, intellectual property lawyers, cybersecurity lawyers, transactional attorneys, litigators, and the list goes on. School systems also need lawyers like any other governmental agency. They need help in navigating constitutional issues, such as under the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and Fourteenth Amendment. They also need lawyers who can help them in good governance, public records, and open meetings. And lastly, school systems need lawyers with a particular expertise in a unique group of constituents: students. Students (and their parents) have numerous rights, rights that are often muddled in complicated, and sometimes conflicting, regulatory schemes. And that’s what I focus on: I help school systems navigate these education-specific laws like the IDEA, Section 504, the ADA, FERPA, Title IX, ESSA, and the list goes on.

MW:  Which subset of practice (either content area, like EC, or type of work, like briefing) do you most enjoy?

CS:  During the pandemic, I began focusing heavily on special education and other disability-related issues. With schools closed, a free and appropriate public education was still owed to students with disabilities, and there was no clear roadmap for how to do that, or what the legal obligations were when everything was different. I was only a third-year attorney at the time, and my investment in this area of law has only grown. I am now a nationally recognized presenter and trainer on complex disability-related issues and love helping school systems support children who were far too long kept out of the public school system altogether.

MW:  What are you most looking forward to during your tenure as section chair, for both you as an individual and for the section?

CS:  So much is in flux right now in our field, and it is hard to know what to expect next. With unanticipated executive actions, coupled with divergent court decisions, our clients — whether they are systems, teachers, governmental agencies, or parents and students — are stressed and confused. I am most excited this year, then, to offer some clarity and security. We will be doing this through blog posts, legislative updates, and CLEs for lawyers, of course. But we will also be doing this by providing legal information to teachers on issues directly impacting them in the classroom, as well as drafting wills for teachers pro bono so that they can protect their valuable assets. The Education Law Section is the only statewide organization serving education lawyers from all walks of practice, and I am thrilled that our Council is committed to a broad approach to support our profession and constituents in this fast-moving environment.

MW:  What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? 

CS:  I don’t think deviled eggs are a traditional Thanksgiving food, but in my house, they are. You may hear tales of me eating the better part of two dozen deviled eggs over the course of a weekend. You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, but you should believe that.

And most importantly . . .

MW:  Which UNC — I mean, North Carolina college basketball team are you rooting for this season? 

CS:  I’m a committed Demon Deacon when it comes to North Carolina college basketball. But I must admit, college basketball is a new phenomenon for me. My first two degrees came from the University of Alabama, so I will always roll tide until I die.

Collins Saint serves as the 2025-2026 chair of the Education Law Section.