Laura Berzins is an Associate Attorney at Garcia Hernández Sawhney, LLP’s San Francisco Bay Area office. She joins the firm’s Education Law practice group with a focus on Board governance, school facilities and contracts, special education and general student issues.
Prior to joining Garcia Hernández Sawhney, LLP, she was an Associate Attorney at Simpson Thacher in Palo Alto, where she primarily handled corporate matters. In this role, she had the opportunity to work on facility acquisitions for a Bay Area private school operator and several Southern California Montessori schools. In addition, she provided legal services to various private equity firms, public companies and private entities in connection with mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate governance matters.
During college, Laura traveled internationally and worked as an educator. She traveled to India and Denmark working as a Teacher and Assistant Teacher, teaching English and working with Special Needs students. After college, she worked as a full-time 1st Grade teacher for a year.
Laura earned a J.D. from Cornell Law School and a M.B.A from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. While at Cornell, she received recognition for Excellence in Legal Writing and Oral Advocacy and the CALI Award for Lawyering. She earned her Master’s degree in International Education from Columbia University, Teachers College and her B.A. in English, with a minor in Education, from Colby College in New England.
Areas of Practice
- Board Governance
- School Facilities
- Public Bidding and Contracting
- Special Education and Student Issues
- Cornell Law School / Johnson Graduate School of Management (J.D. / M.B.A.)
- Teachers College, Columbia University (M.A.)
- Colby College (B.A.)
- California
Education
Bar Admissions
