As one of Wisconsin’s leading school and higher education attorneys, Kirk represents education institutions in all aspects of their operations.
Kirk has been included in the Best Lawyers in America for Education Law as well as for Labor Law - Management. Kirk also has been recognized as a Wisconsin Super Lawyer in Schools and Education and Employment and Labor. Kirk also was honored as a 2013 Leader in the Law by the Wisconsin Law Journal and received the 2017 Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators (WASDA) Award of Special Recognition for Service to Wisconsin.
Kirk advises education clients on all issues related to their status as governmental bodies, including open meetings, public records law, search and seizure, and public contracting and bidding. His expertise in the range of issues that are unique to educators and educational institutions is unsurpassed, including pupil rights and discipline, pupil services, employment relations, administrator and teacher contracting, pupil transportation, regulation of co-curricular activities, open enrollment and residency, and other matters that are central to educational institutions’ day to day operations.
Maintaining an active labor and employment practice, Kirk advises employers on the full range of labor and employment relations issues including family and medical leave, statutory grievance procedures, employment/workplace investigations, employment policies and handbooks, unemployment and worker compensation, employment contracts, employee discipline, discharge, and nonrenewal, employment discrimination and training, and other subjects that are central to human resources management and employment relations.
Kirk works with school districts, technical colleges, and other higher education institutions, as well as large and small private sector companies. In addition to Kirk’s transactional work, he continues to practice before the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Workforce Development-Equal Rights Division and Bureau of Labor Standards, and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC). He also appears in Wisconsin state courts, representing our clients in circuit court, the court of appeals, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Kirk regularly presents legal programming to groups around the state on education and labor and employment law issues. He has provided programming for the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators (WASDA), the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators (AWSA), the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials (WASBO), the Wisconsin Association of School Superintendents Assistants (WASSA), the Wisconsin School Attorneys Association (WSAA), and the Wisconsin Technical College District Boards Association (WTCDBA).
Kirk is a contributing author of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s treatise on “Public Sector Labor Law Relations in Wisconsin.” He has advised the state Chamber of Commerce and the School Administrators’ Alliance on legislation and legislative issues affecting business and public schools. Kirk also chaired the State Bar of Wisconsin’s annual employment law program for 13 years.
