Lauren joined GHSM in July 2022 as a Partner in the Firm’s Atlanta office. She has an extensive background in legislative policy and government affairs. Her legal practice focuses on education with a special concentration on charter schools.
Through her education practice, she advises schools on a variety of educational, corporate, and operational issues, including board governance, labor and employment, special education compliance, student discipline, and education funding, among others.
Prior to joining GHSM, Lauren was of counsel at McGuireWoods LLP and Vice President of State Government Affairs with McGuireWoods Consulting, where she developed her education legal practice and assisted clients across a spectrum of industries with lobbying and multi-state policy monitoring, respectively.
She began her career with the Georgia General Assembly drafting legislation in the Office of Legislative Counsel and as an analyst in the Senate Budget and Evaluation Office and Senate Research Office. As a program analyst in the Senate Budget and Evaluation Office, she worked with multiple Appropriations subcommittees, to develop comprehensive budget recommendations for 13 state agencies with combined budgets of more than $1 billion in public funding.
As a senior policy analyst in the Senate Research Office, she provided non-partisan policy research, legislative tracking, and support to members and standing committees of the Georgia State Senate, including Education and Retirement. Lauren worked with policymakers on an array of legislative issues, including charter schools, school improvement, accountability, and flexibility. While in the Senate Research Office, she served as lead staff for the Support Services subcommittee of the State Education Finance Commission, working closely with members of the Commission to develop recommendations, which were later enacted by the General Assembly, to enhance Georgia’s K-12 funding formula.
Prior to joining McGuireWoods Consulting, Lauren served as a policy analyst with the Council of State Governments’ Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) where she developed and executed activities of multiple SLC policy committees, published extensive research papers on emerging regional trends, oversaw the organization’s CLE programs, and provided research assistance to elected officials in 15 southern states.
Lauren is a member of the Junior League of Atlanta, Lawyer’s Club of Atlanta, Advance Atlanta, and the 2019 Class of the Zell Miller Foundation Leadership Institute. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Georgia and Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi.
