Manning, Bill
Partner, Saul Ewing LLP, DE
A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Bill Manning has practiced law there since 1976 and leads the Wilmington office of Saul Ewing LLP. Bill also serves as Co-Chair of Saul Ewing’s Higher Education Practice Group.
Married to Martha – the first Executive Director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network – for 43 years, they have four children. Both Bill and Martha have been involved in public education reform for nearly 30 years. Bill led Delaware’s second largest school district, promoting changes that put families, rather than bureaucrats, in control of school selection. After collaborating with the Carper Administration on Delaware’s charter school enabling legislation in 1995, Bill’s school district authorized Delaware’s first charter school. 17 years later, the Wilmington Charter School is acclaimed as one of the best public high schools in the nation. Bill’s former district chartered four more schools and remains the only local school district in Delaware ever to do so.
Since then, Bill and others in his firm have provided legal counsel to nearly all of Delaware’s charter schools. He serves on the boards of the Delaware Charter Schools Network and one of the State’s leading charters, MOT Charter School. For the past two years, Bill has served on the board of the Community Education Building, Inc., a foundation formed to transform a donated office building in center city Wilmington into a home for high-performing charter schools. Ironically, the building stands on the site of a former public school, and the foundation expects to open the new “Public School No. 5” in 2014 to 2400 charter school students in schools selected to provide a world class education.
