Our firm represents school districts, county offices of education, professional education organizations and community colleges on such diverse matters as the Brown Act, employment and labor law issues, collective bargaining, employment contracts, layoffs, employee discipline, employment discrimination, civil rights, worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, disabled students, student discipline, and nonprofit educational foundations.

We advise our clients on all aspects of education law.  For example:

• We act as spokesperson or advisor in negotiations, drafting and reviewing proposed contractual language, consulting with and advising the administration and governing board regarding the negotiations, and working with the district and representing it through mediation and fact-finding, when necessary.
  
  
• We regularly provide legal advice concerning board relations issues, including advising and in-servicing boards on the Brown Act. The firm was very much involved in drafting and reviewing the 1994 amendments to the Brown Act and has provided numerous workshops and training sessions on the implementation of those provisions.
  
  
• We litigate issues relating to whether a party with pending litigation against a district may still attempt to obtain documents by way of the Public Records Act.

In addition, our firm represents clients in matters relating to student discipline, including representing or assisting the districts at suspension and expulsion hearings, and advising districts on appropriate disciplinary procedures in light of Education Code and constitutional requirements. The law firm advises and represents districts when they are subject to investigations or complaints by the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, in regard to alleged violations of civil rights laws.

As part of our continued commitment to client service, we provide clients with well-reasoned opinion letters that offer valuable insight and often extend beyond the immediate issue and we pride ourselves on being routinely available to promptly answer questions from district administration and their staff.

The firm also supports school districts and administrators through two additional organizations:

• Inland Personnel Council (IPC) is a consortium of school districts, community colleges and offices of education in the Riverside and San Bernardino counties where legal advice, assistance and information is made available to meet client needs involving labor relations and school law. To learn more about the IPC, please visit www.ipclaw.org.