Building on years of experience advising higher education clients and California employers, Natasha Baker founded Novus Law Firm in 2020 to provide high quality, technology-savvy, and proactive legal counsel for clients.
Natasha’s practice includes: advising on California employment law; advising on employment law in the higher education context and seeking legislative change where necessary to adapt the Labor Code to the uniqueness of academia; serving as outside general counsel to institutions; and labor negotiations.
Natasha serves as legal counsel to administrators at both private and public institutions, whom she advises on matters including labor, employment, student affairs, and compliance issues. She counsels boards of trustees on the negotiation of presidential contracts and the termination of high-level administrators. She assists with the higher education accreditation process, including appeals and revocation hearings. Natasha’s practice also includes conducting preventative training and providing practical advice on a wide range of legal issues, including Title IX compliance; performance management and termination strategies that minimize risk; and labor relations issues. Natasha regularly presents training sessions to administrators and faculty around the country on higher education issues, including “Title IX Compliance,” “Conducting Effective Campus Investigations,” “Managing the Search Process,” and “Conducting Effective Faculty Evaluations.”
Natasha is passionate about legal issues in higher education and has co-authored amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and the National Labor Relations Board and comments to the Department of Labor and the Department of Education to ensure that her clients’ perspective is fairly represented. She served on the National Association of College & University Attorneys (NACUA) Board of Directors and is the past chair of the Higher Education Council of the Employment Law Alliance. She regularly presents at NACUA, the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), and other higher education conferences. She is an instructor for NACUA’s online course “Conducting Effective Internal Investigations.”
Beyond her work with higher education institutions, Natasha represents California employers in administrative agency charges and conducts neutral investigations into a variety of issues. She routinely trains supervisors and managers nationwide on the best practices for conducting investigations. She also drafts handbooks, policies, and procedures to ensure that her clients are legally compliant and that best practices are followed.
