Scott R. Palmer

Scott R. Palmer is a partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC, an affiliate of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough. He provides legal, policy, strategic planning, and advocacy services to education leaders across the country. Mr. Palmer’s focus is on policy change and preventive law -- helping states, school districts, higher education institutions, private education providers, and education associations understand how to structure their policies in ways that best serve their educational goals and meet federal and state legal requirements, thereby improving education while reducing the risk of litigation or enforcement.

He also focuses on federal advocacy before the United States Department of Education and Congress on key education issues. Mr. Palmer works on issues such as the No Child Left Behind Act, accountability, standards and assessment, services for English language learners, services for students with disabilities, and diversity programs. Mr. Palmer served until January 2001 in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In that capacity, Mr. Palmer was responsible for the development of civil rights legal policy in education, including the promulgation of regulations and policy guidance on issues such as high-stakes testing, resource equity/adequacy, and affirmative action. Mr. Palmer previously served as a legal and policy advisor with the President’s Initiative on Race in the White House, where he was responsible for education and civil rights issues. Mr. Palmer speaks regularly on education legal and policy matters and has published numerous articles on issues such as the proper use of tests and the value of diversity in education. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has taught education law and policy.

He is a prior vice chair of the American Bar Association's Public Education Committee of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section. He is a Senior Legal Fellow of the Harvard University Civil Rights Project and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America (2007-2008 editions).

He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of California Berkeley Boalt Hall School Of Law. He earned a Master of Arts in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts, with honors, from the University of Maryland.