We serve as general counsel to public school districts and technical colleges throughout Wisconsin. Our experience as the primary, and often exclusive legal counsel to our clients gives us unsurpassed skills and abilities to provide counsel on managing the difficult, often multifaceted legal problems that our public education institutions confront.
The role of the school district general counsel is as vital as any other member of the superintendent’s administrative cabinet and as critical as any advisor to the board of education. The general counsel is a part of day-to-day operations, making certain that more routine legal issues are flagged and addressed, and that more complex legal problems are identified, controlled, and/or isolated, so that more careful consideration can be given to the issues presented. The general counsel prevents missteps, violations of law, or worse by being dialed in to the school district’s affairs and by bringing a truly well-rounded, highly experienced legal profile to the table.
As general counsel, we can almost never be concerned with legal matters alone. School district legal issues are often intertwined with policy matters, questions concerning the powers and authority of the government, media relations issues, and good old-fashioned politics. Our public school districts and technical colleges do not work in a legal vacuum. We don’t advise them as though they do.
We believe in the role of the school district or technical college general counsel, and know the powerful, positive influence that the general counsel can have on the overall operations and culture of educational institutions. Experienced general counsel pays dividends. It isn’t just about winning cases (and, to be sure, our clients generally prefer not to be involved in litigation at all if they can help it). Instead, it is about winning through making sure that things go well, taking steps that galvanize public confidence, and—candidly—making sure that our clients look good.
An effective general counsel, utilized properly, can make all the difference in the world for a school district or technical college.