Getting the Most Out of Your School Attorney

Legal Brief

HEARD ANY GOOD LAWYER jokes lately? I bet you all have at least two or three you love to tell, and those of us who work as school attorneys love to joke and laugh with you, usually at our expense … and yours too. Get it? Hah, even a school attorney can be funny.

In all seriousness, the school district/legal counsel relationship is one of the most important business decisions a board of education and the superintendent can make.

During my 12 years as general counsel of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, so many superintendents would call and ask the following questions: How do we hire the school attorneys? What should we expect from them? What are we looking for in a school attorney? Or they would say the following: I am scared to ask the question to our school district attorney. I don’t want to look stupid in front of the attorney. I feel like I was reprimanded by the attorney.

The reply always would be the same in my best Vanilla Ice sing-song voice: Stop, Collaborate and Listen.