Experience

EDUCATION LAW & GOVERNANCE – Representative Matters

  • In Wilson v. State Bd. of Education, 75 Cal. App. 4th 1125 (2000), Nielsen Merksamer represented the California Network of Education Charters as intervener in successfully defending against a constitutional challenge to California’s Charter Schools Act of 1992.
  • In San Rafael Elementary School District v. State Board of Education, 73 Cal. App. 4th 1018 (1999), the firm successfully represented local parents seeking to transfer their homes from one school district to another, in a case establishing the principle that the State Board of Education need not defer to a local educational agency in determining whether the criteria for such a transfer were met.
  • In recent years Nielsen Merksamer has advised the Monterey County Office of Education with respect to a number of proposed territory transfers, unifications, and related issues.
  • In 2011, Nielsen Merksamer advised the trustees of the Woodlake Union High School District and the Woodlake Union Elementary School District regarding the unification of the two into the Woodlake Unified School District.
  • Nielsen Merksamer attorneys have successfully represented many clients before the State Board of Education regarding territory transfer appeals and unifications in San Mateo County, Ventura County, Los Angeles County, Kern County, Fresno County, and others.
  • The firm successfully defended a lawsuit challenging a territory transfer alleged to be racially discriminatory (Woodside Elem. School District) and opposed another reorganization on the same grounds (Pajaro Valley Unified School District).
  • The firm pioneered the use of the State Board of Education’s waiver authority to address electoral issues that hindered school districts’ compliance with voting rights laws.