Rachel Paul is a nonprofit corporate lawyer with a background in corporate governance, endowment management, and structuring affiliate relationships between nonprofit organizations. She advises nonprofits during all stages of maturation – from formation to establishing charitable giving programs and endowments, to mergers and acquisitions, and from time to time, dissolution and distributions of assets.
Rachel frequently works with nonprofit clients to:

• Advance their corporate design and governance structures, including developing policies, procedures, and internal controls to comply with federal and South Carolina law.
• Apply for, or seek re-classification relating to, federal tax exemption.
• Structure affiliations, joint ventures, and public-private partnerships, as well as binary governance models, such as pairings of 501(c)(4), (6), or (7) organizations with a 503(c) organization.
• Establish endowments and restricted funds, including drafting endowment indentures, investment policy statements, spending policies, and administrative fee policies, as well as advising on issues arising out of the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act.
• Assist in major gift and planned giving programs, including drafting and advising on charitable gift agreements, trusts, and other gift vehicles.
• Engage in and effect nonprofit mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, and asset transfers.

Rachel enjoys helping each organization identify how to best address its unique goals and needs. She represents a diverse range of clients, including private, public and charter schools, churches, historic sites, trade associations, land trusts, free medical clinics, charter schools, colleges, and universities.

Before joining the firm, Rachel practiced as a litigation attorney in both state and federal courts. She has successfully represented a diverse range of clients from major pharmaceutical and device manufacturers to private individuals. She earned her Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.

Prior to practicing law, Rachel worked for the United States Marshals Service and Time magazine and attended American University, where she graduated magna cum laude with university honors, majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies in Communications, Legal Studies, Economics, and Government.